Microsoft open-sources Windows Subsystem for Linux at Build 2025

Microsoft has open-sourced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), making its source code available on GitHub, except for a few components that are part of Windows. This marks a milestone for a project that started as an experiment almost a decade ago but has grown to become a very popular tool in Windows. WSL was first introduced at Microsoft BUILD 2016 and was ultimately shipped in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, allowing you to run Linux distributions directly in Windows. Its first release, WSL 1, utilized a compatibility layer that translated Linux system calls so they could communicate and work with the Windows NT kernel using a custom driver named lxcore.sys. In 2019, Microsoft released WSL 2, which included a real Linux kernel running in a virtual machine that offered significant improvements, such as performance enhancements, GPU and systemd support, and the ability to run graphical applications. Windows Subsystem for Linux architecture Source: Microsoft Now, at Micros ... Read full article.