#Better bash shell for windows how to#
#Better bash shell for windows install#
#Better bash shell for windows update#

If some C program was designed for Unix and expects to use features such as pipes, Unix-style file and directory access e.t.c.

a comprehensive compatibility layer that enables Linux programs to run on Windows.Д¬ygwin aims to make porting Linux applications on Windows easy.

an extensive range of common Linux utilities compiled to run on Windows.

Here's an old but nice comparison with cygwin (note that Rich Turner is a member of the WSL team and he has posted a lot of useful info regarding WSL) Cygwin and Babun

You are not supposed to edit WSL(Linux) files from Windows.

Rendering the screen and disk access are very slow.

It seems that as things stand at the moment (2020-01) the main drawbacks of WSL are the following:

#Better bash shell for windows how to#

Microsoft officially states that 'WSL does not aim to support GUI desktops or applications' however there are unofficial instructions on how to do it.

#Better bash shell for windows install#

This will change since current beta of WSL runs a real linux kernel in a lightweight VM.ДЄnyway, with WSL you do get a nice shell with almost all CLI goodies you'd expect to find on a stock Ubuntu installation and the option to apt install almost everything available from the repositories. Until 2020-01 WSL intercepts kernel calls and translates them to windows kernel calls (think the opposite of Wine).

You run the exact same binary code that you would run on a Linux system. It solves the problem using a different method than most other options. WSL is becoming more and more mature (Microsoft dropped the beta warning long ago) and is very easy to install so in most cases it's a very good (if not the best) option. Options that stand out Windows Subsystem for Linux(WSL) Here's a list of the options available as of 2018-05 with a plenty of updates regarding WSL as of 2020-01 along with a bit of detail regarding each one. Over the course, Microsoft collaborated with Canonical (creators of Ubuntu Linux) to provide them with a native image with all supported tools/binaries. Eventually project Astoria was dropped as it undermined their UWP (Universal Windows Platform) strategy, but some parts were retained and form the basis of bash for Windows.

You are now ready to use the bash shellДЄ bit of history, back in 2015 project Astoria was started to bring Android apps to Windows and they built a Linux subsystem called Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for the purpose.

After installation it will ask to create a UNIX username and password.

Search for 'bash' and click on it, it should open a command prompt and ask you if you want to install 'Ubuntu on Windows', continue with 'y'.

In the dialog box, check 'Windows Subsystem for Linux' and click Ok.Control Panel -> Programs and Features and click 'Turn Windows Features on or off' on the top left pane.

#Better bash shell for windows update#

Navigate to Settings -> Update & Security -> For Developers and select 'Developer mode'.

To enable the new feature on a Windows 10 Anniversary Update machine, do the following: This was introduced in Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update (2016) and is not enabled by default. This allows you to run Bash shell directly on Windows and is based on Ubuntu.

You can now install the Windows Subsystem for Linux which allows you to run native user-mode Linux shell and tools on Windows.