WSL makes its way to Windows Server Insider preview builds

Aug 9, 2017 06:21 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has made the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) available for Windows Server insiders, a move that basically makes Linux virtual machines, which many WS customers were using, totally unnecessary because native Linux tools can now run alongside CMD and PowerShell.

First and foremost, it’s worth knowing that in order to try out WSL on Windows Server, you need to be running preview build 16237 or a newer release, so as long as you’re on the latest preview build, everything should work smoothly for you.

As it’s the case of WSL on Windows 10, Windows Server users will be allowed to run the common daemons and jobs, including sshd and MySQL, but on the other hand, persistent Linux services, daemons, and jobs are not supported as background tasks.

Not a Linux server

This means that while you can run Linux on a Windows Server install, you won’t be getting a Linux server.

“We want Windows, including Windows Server, to be a great place for developers. We know developers, system administrators, people managing services and people building services all occasionally need tools available on Linux.  Many more would like to run Linux tools as part of their workflow as a matter of convenience,” Microsoft explains.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux has recently graduated from beta in Windows 10, and Microsoft worked together with a number of partners to make their distributions available in the Windows Store, including SUSE and Ubuntu. Users can easily install them from the Windows Store just like a typical application for Windows 10, and the whole process is performed automatically with almost no user interaction.

WSL will become available for all users in stable form with the release of the Fall Creators Update in September, and more improvements will be shipped in the coming months as Microsoft starts work on the next Windows update.