GUI Linux on Windows is Coming
WSL finally gets a display server
Microsoft has announced some big news: the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) will soon be able to run GUI Linux programs out of the box. It has always been possible, of course, to install your own X server (such as XMing) and do it yourself, but it was an extra install step and you had to launch the X server which itself was a Windows program.
Microsoft, however, isn’t providing an X server, but a Wayland display server and they are calling the whole thing WSLG. Wayland is outwardly compatible with X11, but has a lot of internal differences in architecture. It is also incompatible with some X11 programs (things like autokey, for example). The connection to the GUI program will look like an RDP connection so the app will live on your normal Windows display.
There’s no exact timeframe for the new release for the beta, but they hope to have it to the “insider” program in a few months. Meanwhile, you can still set up XMing or another X server. Microsoft shared this animation of the system at work.
Another question, though, is do you care? Running a Linux shell has some definite benefits under…
