Ah yes, but now they’ve changed their minds and while wslv1 is still supported, wsl2 is now a virtual machine running under hyper-v, with network shares to access files across the systems.

My own environment is now wsl; previously it was mostly cygwin, with some msys. Where native Linux is required, I use an Android tablet, or in extreme cases a virtual machine.

Right now I’m looking at uml because I’m interested in getting a full Linux desktop environment working on an unrooted Android phone; termux has proot, but it’s not enough isolation and doesn’t work for multiple user stuff or init.

docker still needs something like KVM. And KVM can’t run KVM. But you can deploy UML in a docker like scenario, you could setup a generic web server, and then mount it’s filesystem via loop, reconfigure it’s ip address, and spin it up and add it into a load balancer as needed, and similarly destroy them. The magic of it, is that it’s all user mode code, so having a crap hosting solution is still workable.

lol, and yes, this is not the source for normal solutions, but rather living on edge situations.

It really is a ‘low barrier’ way to say test Linux kernel 4.x on Debian 2 for the hell of it.

According to this list, however it appears to be far slower compared to other emulation strategies. But like Qemu this one doesn’t require any device driver access.

colinux is very different from a NT subsystem though. If MS had documented the subsystem stuff, I’m sure Linux would have been ported to NT quite a while ago, and would have been a player in the corporate world.

Is it too little too late now? I don’t think so, I have been in multiple environments where you can ONLY get Windows servers as part of their corporate support strategy. SUA/SFU was one way to get a UNIX like environment, but they could easily turn into a major PITA to get more ‘interesting’ things working. A Linux personality for NT will go a very very long way IMHO.

UML on Win32 is related to the LINE project which again died out around 2002.

Now coLinux isn’t actively developed anymore, and it only supports 32Bit windows versions. It supposedly became irrelevant due VTx assisted virtualization. Ironically enough right now MS decides to retake this older concept and make it profitable. I wonder if this time it will have success.

I think so. It’s amazing how easy this is to use… I mean: you basically just start the kernel like you would any other program. I personally like that it enables you to toy around with various kernel and userland builds without screwing up your main system. I think this really can come in handy in a lot of ways.

Hey no problem! This whole blog is about my overcoming stupid self inflicted problems, like buying the wrong equipment, and hammering that square peg into the round hole.

I don’t think I’ve messed with UML since 2003 with the advent of VMWare ESXi 2.0, and of course Qemu letting me run stuff like my beloved OS/2.

It’s cool that UML is still in development, and you can easily download version 4 kernels, or roll your own. I wonder what the performance is KVM vs UML. Maybe UML is something overlooked in the world of running Linux on Linux?

Cheers,

-Florian