4 ms·

I feel like this is somewhat -- err, not a lie, but not quite the truth. There's a word for it but it's eluding me atm -- "misadvertised"? The headline of the

I feel like this is somewhat -- err, not a lie, but not quite the truth. There's a word for it but it's eluding me atm -- "misadvertised"? The headline of the article is: "WSL is finally easy to install—and offers automatic sound/graphics support." All of this stuff was available before Windows 11, to anyone/everyone. I know, because the way I installed WSL2 on Windows 10 was the way mentioned in the article ("wsl --install"), and ditto for using the new/experimental Linux GUI stuff. This was readily available for anyone who bothered to install an Insiders ISO, and there are tutorials and articles about this for Win10 specifically: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/how-to-install-wsl2-on-windows-10 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/the-initial-preview-of-gui-app-support-is-now-available-for-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux-2/

prirai 5y ago
Same with me.
fortran77 5y ago
For quite some time, I just connected to the Windows X client I had running on the Windows side of the box, and it worked fine. Now with Windows 11, this is better. Got the new Surface Studio Laptop two days ago and am very happy with it.
krainboltgreene 5y ago
The Sound/Audio stuff literally just came out and likely was an effort by the team working on 11.
- naikrovek 5y ago
  > literally just came out well it's been in Windows insider builds for some time.
ThinkBeat 5y ago
> anyone who bothered to install an Insiders ISO That is a big no from me. I am not interested in being Microsofts unpaid alpha / beta tester, when I get in return in a less stable operating system and some unfinished bits. I hate how Microsoft keeps running huge blog campaigns about this or that new features and once you dig into it "Just install the Insider ISO". No. Tell me when you are done developing and it is ready for production.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  They're release cycle is 6 months, I'm perfectly fine with them blogging about what's coming in half a year and available to try out early. Nothing to get worked up about.
  - jholman 5y ago
    Their release cycle is way more opaque than that. I had to wait literally over a year (after "release") for them to let me install the upgrade to Win10 that would give me WSL2 (I don't remember what version that was). They control the upgrade cycle, and I couldn't get it to upgrade. Maybe a clean install would have helped, but screw that. Anyway, it's not just "wait 6 months".
    - zamadatix 5y ago
      You can always run the update assistant to immediately update to the latest stable release. What you were waiting ~1 year for was your build to near end of support and be forced to a newer version.
      - jholman 5y ago
        I'm not sure what "update assistant" means, but I opened the Settings for Windows Update, and manually told it to check for updates, and it refused to give me anything. I wasn't waiting to be forced, I was proactively seeking an upgrade that all their blogposts said had rolled out a year ago. I googled for that phrase, got to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-assistant-3550dfb2-a015-7765-12ea-fba2ac36fb3f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-... , which said that Update Assistant does automatic updates (which I already have), and that if I want to manually do updates I should look at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3c5ae7fc-9fb6-9af1-1984-b5e0412c556a https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3... , which tells me to do what I was doing for a year. Maybe there's some nuance I'm missing, though, I'm not a very competent sysadmin, especially on Windows. Anyway, as far as I can tell all this means that they're knowingly writing false statements, also known as "lying", in case I was too subtle. Now, maybe their lies are reasonable. A rolling release makes sense, to detect bugs in smaller segments of the population, and manage them. And maybe they have some reason to believe that my moderately old hardware still has driver issues that need ironing out, or something, I don't know (the hardward in question is an expensive-ish highish-perf tower, but it's not that recent). Managing horrifyingly multiplexed complexity across a billion hardware vendors is literally the main value that MS provides, so I don't really want to second-guess them. After all, this is why I'm wanting to use WSL. But the fact remains that their marketing about when things will be available is full of false statements about availability dates.
1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
Didnt Microsoft tell the press there would be no more Windows versions after 10. The title is "Part of Windows 11 is a revamped WSL". This begs the question, What is (new in) the other part. It is almost as if this marketing is being employed as a distraction. The disclosed changes to Windows 10 that comprise "Windows 11" sound non-critical, like Firefox changing its UI for the umpteenth time without ever disclosing underlying reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_11
beowulfey 5y ago
Surely you don’t equate installing Insider Builds to having it built into the OS itself by default? That’s like saying my crappy economy car can win races because I could install a new engine. Sure it’s available to me already but that doesn’t mean I always want to go through the effort to get there.

prirai 5y ago

Same with me.

fortran77 5y ago

For quite some time, I just connected to the Windows X client I had running on the Windows side of the box, and it worked fine. Now with Windows 11, this is better. Got the new Surface Studio Laptop two days ago and am very happy with it.

krainboltgreene 5y ago

The Sound/Audio stuff literally just came out and likely was an effort by the team working on 11.

naikrovek 5y ago
> literally just came out well it's been in Windows insider builds for some time.

ThinkBeat 5y ago

> anyone who bothered to install an Insiders ISO That is a big no from me. I am not interested in being Microsofts unpaid alpha / beta tester, when I get in return in a less stable operating system and some unfinished bits. I hate how Microsoft keeps running huge blog campaigns about this or that new features and once you dig into it "Just install the Insider ISO". No. Tell me when you are done developing and it is ready for production.

zamadatix 5y ago
They're release cycle is 6 months, I'm perfectly fine with them blogging about what's coming in half a year and available to try out early. Nothing to get worked up about.
- jholman 5y ago
  Their release cycle is way more opaque than that. I had to wait literally over a year (after "release") for them to let me install the upgrade to Win10 that would give me WSL2 (I don't remember what version that was). They control the upgrade cycle, and I couldn't get it to upgrade. Maybe a clean install would have helped, but screw that. Anyway, it's not just "wait 6 months".
  - zamadatix 5y ago
    You can always run the update assistant to immediately update to the latest stable release. What you were waiting ~1 year for was your build to near end of support and be forced to a newer version.
    - jholman 5y ago
      I'm not sure what "update assistant" means, but I opened the Settings for Windows Update, and manually told it to check for updates, and it refused to give me anything. I wasn't waiting to be forced, I was proactively seeking an upgrade that all their blogposts said had rolled out a year ago. I googled for that phrase, got to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-assistant-3550dfb2-a015-7765-12ea-fba2ac36fb3f https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-... , which said that Update Assistant does automatic updates (which I already have), and that if I want to manually do updates I should look at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3c5ae7fc-9fb6-9af1-1984-b5e0412c556a https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/update-windows-3... , which tells me to do what I was doing for a year. Maybe there's some nuance I'm missing, though, I'm not a very competent sysadmin, especially on Windows. Anyway, as far as I can tell all this means that they're knowingly writing false statements, also known as "lying", in case I was too subtle. Now, maybe their lies are reasonable. A rolling release makes sense, to detect bugs in smaller segments of the population, and manage them. And maybe they have some reason to believe that my moderately old hardware still has driver issues that need ironing out, or something, I don't know (the hardward in question is an expensive-ish highish-perf tower, but it's not that recent). Managing horrifyingly multiplexed complexity across a billion hardware vendors is literally the main value that MS provides, so I don't really want to second-guess them. After all, this is why I'm wanting to use WSL. But the fact remains that their marketing about when things will be available is full of false statements about availability dates.

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago

Didnt Microsoft tell the press there would be no more Windows versions after 10. The title is "Part of Windows 11 is a revamped WSL". This begs the question, What is (new in) the other part. It is almost as if this marketing is being employed as a distraction. The disclosed changes to Windows 10 that comprise "Windows 11" sound non-critical, like Firefox changing its UI for the umpteenth time without ever disclosing underlying reasons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_11

beowulfey 5y ago

Surely you don’t equate installing Insider Builds to having it built into the OS itself by default? That’s like saying my crappy economy car can win races because I could install a new engine. Sure it’s available to me already but that doesn’t mean I always want to go through the effort to get there.