The differences between Microsoft and the world of Linux are well known, but on more than one occasion "points of contact" have been detected, such as projects seeking to move specific tools from one platform to the other. However, the Redmond giant opened its BUILD 2016 conference with a bombshell: thanks to a special agreement with the folks at Canonical, Windows 10 will receive nothing less than Bash, the historic shell that Unix, Linux and OS X users have dominated for years, and its execution will be native, meaning no virtual machines.
Windows 10 is the star of BUILD 2016, by far. Most of the announcements made yesterday revolve around Microsoft's flagship OS, and there are so many novelties that one doesn't know where to start. Let's try: First, Windows 10 will have an "anniversary update" that will arrive to users in the summer, and given that its debut last year was on July 29, we estimate that the update will show up around that date. Then we have the inclusion of biometric checks for Windows 10 apps (for example, you can access a Web service with Edge using your fingerprints), the union of Windows and Xbox One stores, major optimizations for Cortana, and more universal apps… but among all these advances we find a very special and undoubtedly unexpected guest: Bash.
Bash and Ubuntu on Windows 10
Bash? Yes, Bash. The famous shell of Unix, Linux and OS X will be available on Windows 10. Many users will think: "Cygwin has been taking care of that for years," and from a certain point of view they are right… but now it's different. Why? Bash comes to Windows 10 thanks to an agreement between Microsoft and the folks at Canonical, which also includes the possibility of running Ubuntu under Windows 10. I know it sounds like a joke among techies, but it's not: In addition to Bash, Windows 10 users will have access to Ubuntu's user space, and to things like apt, ssh, or wget… not to mention the thousands of binaries in Ubuntu's repositories. What's most surprising? This is not a virtual machine, nor is there any need to recompile. Ubuntu binaries run natively, without modifications. In essence, it's a "translation layer" that takes Linux syscalls and transforms them into Windows syscalls. A "Wine in the other direction", if you will.
Reactions and expectations
Bash and Ubuntu's user space on Windows 10 amount to enormous news from any angle. Some colleague sites have talked about "the most important news for developers in the last ten years", although personally I wouldn't go that far. The whole project is based on what is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, but with version 16.04 LTS around the corner, I imagine there will be several changes. User opinion on this has been quite colorful on the Web. On one side are those who welcome Bash (the audience present during the announcement exploded in applause), while the rest consider that Microsoft has more "sinister" objectives, and express concern for Canonical. In short: Patience. All this package will be available soon, and each user will be able to judge for themselves.
