Microsoft Open-Sources WSL After Closing 9-Year Feature Request
▼ Summary
– Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) provides developers with a built-in Linux command line and applications within Windows, introduced in 2016.
– Microsoft has consistently enhanced WSL, improving performance, usability, and adding features like GPU and audio support.
– At its Build conference, Microsoft announced plans to open-source nearly all of WSL, addressing a long-standing request from the community.
– Only two WSL components remain closed-source: the lxcore.sys kernel driver for WSL 1 and filesystem redirection files (p9rdr.sys and p9np.dll).
– Microsoft acknowledged the community’s role in WSL’s development and expressed excitement about future contributions but didn’t commit to open-sourcing the remaining components.
Microsoft has taken a significant step forward with its Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), announcing the open-sourcing of nearly the entire project. This move fulfills a long-standing request from developers, marking a major milestone for the tool that first launched in 2016 as part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. WSL has since evolved into an indispensable resource for developers, offering seamless access to Linux environments directly within Windows.
Over the years, Microsoft has refined WSL with performance upgrades, simplified installation, and expanded capabilities—including GPU acceleration and audio support. The decision to open-source the project came during Microsoft’s Build developer conference, where the company revealed it was addressing the very first GitHub issue logged for WSL nearly nine years ago.
Pierre Boulay, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, emphasized the critical role of the developer community in shaping WSL’s success. In a blog post, he noted that while contributors have already made substantial improvements without direct access to the source code, open-sourcing the project unlocks even greater potential for innovation.
For now, only a few components remain proprietary: the lxcore.sys kernel driver, which powers WSL 1 (the original version still supported alongside WSL 2), and the p9rdr.sys and p9np.dll files responsible for filesystem redirection between Windows and Linux. Microsoft hasn’t ruled out making these elements open-source in the future but hasn’t provided a timeline for such a move.
This shift underscores Microsoft’s commitment to fostering collaboration within the developer ecosystem while continuing to enhance cross-platform functionality. With WSL now open to community contributions, its evolution is poised to accelerate, offering even more powerful tools for developers worldwide.
(Source: Ars Technica)
