ZDNet reports:
At the Microsoft Build 2020 virtual developers’ conference, CEO Satya Nadella announced that Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2.0 would soon support Linux GUIs and applications. That day is closer now than ever before. At the recent X.Org Developers Conference, Microsoft partner developer lead Steve Pronovost revealed that Microsoft has made it possible to run graphical Linux applications within WSL.
It’s always been possible to run Linux graphical programs such as the GIMP graphics editor, Evolution e-mail client, and LibreOffice on WSL. But it wasn’t easy. You had to install a third-party X Window display server, such as the VcXsrv Windows X Server in Windows 10, and then do some tuning with both Windows and Linux to get them to work together smoothly. The X Window System underlies almost all Linux graphical user interfaces. Now, Microsoft has ported a Wayland display server to WSL. Wayland is the most popular X Window compatible server. In WSL2, it connects the graphical Linux applications via a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connection to the main Windows display. This means you can run Linux and Windows GUI applications simultaneously on the same desktop screen….
Craig Loewen, Microsoft WSL Program Manager, added in a Twitter thread that the key differences between using a third-party X server and the built-in Wayland server is that: “You don’t need to start up or start the server, we’ll handle that for you.” In addition, it comes with “Lovely integration with Windows,” such as drop shadows and Linux icon support. Loewen also said you can run a Linux web browser in it. “We haven’t tested it extensively with a full desktop environment yet, as we want to focus on running often asked for apps first, and primarily IDEs [integrated development environment] so you can run those in a full Linux environment,” he said.
Don’t get too excited about it just yet, though. Loewen continued, “We don’t yet have an ETA for the beta channel, however, this work will be available in general for Insiders to try within the next couple of months.”
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot