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Correct. It's a trademark law issue. In the same way that you can develop a "Chess for Windows" but not a "Windows Chess". Using "for X" is fair use.
by kaetemi 5y ago
Correct. It's a trademark law issue. In the same way that you can develop a "Chess for Windows" but not a "Windows Chess". Using "for X" is fair use.
- MereInterest 5y agoBut even in your example, it shows how bad of a name WSL is. "Chess for Windows" implies that there is a chess program that runs on windows. By analogy, "Windows Subsystem for Linux" implies that there is a Windows Subsystem that can run on Linux.
- mastax 5y agoSimilarly, the unofficial Reddit apps had to rename from e.g. "Reddit Sync" to "Sync for Reddit".
- losvedir 5y agoYou say "correct" but you're directly contradicting the parent's point, since with your argument the easily and correctly parsed 'Linux Subsystem "for Windows"' would not run afoul of any trademarks.
- bitwize 5y agoRemember -- the name "Linux" is trademarked. Microsoft is free to call something Windows X since they own the Windows trademark, but they can't call something Linux X because they don't own the Linux trademark. But they can call something X for Linux the same way a third party can call something X for Windows. Hence, Windows Subsystem for Linux. It sounds dumb, but that's the legal rationale.