{"id":288542,"date":"2026-07-12T06:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/microsoft-stopped-fighting-linux-now-its-building-it\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T07:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:10:07","slug":"microsoft-stopped-fighting-linux-now-its-building-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/microsoft-stopped-fighting-linux-now-its-building-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft stopped fighting Linux\u2014now it’s building it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft stopped fighting Linux\u2014now it’s building it<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/microsoft-stopped-fighting-linux-now-its-building-it\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-12 06:31:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com<\/a><\/p>\n

For years, Microsoft tried to fight off Linux. Linux users were all too happy to take potshots at Microsoft and Windows in turn. But over the years, something changed. It seems that Microsoft has become an advocate for one of its biggest competitors: Linux and open-source software more generally. How did that happen?<\/p>\n

\n WSL
\n <\/h2>\n

\n You can run real Linux apps from Windows
\n <\/h3>\n

The biggest way Microsoft supports Linux is through the Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL. As the name suggests, it’s a way to run Linux programs on Windows without having to install a heavyweight virtual machine or install a dual-boot system.<\/p>\n

While it was initially limited to command-line applications, you can now run Linux GUI applications, both X11 and Wayland, in Windows. Why would Microsoft build such a way to let them run one of their competitors’ systems on their own machines? WSL seems like a way to regain developer mindshare. With more developers building in the cloud, they were deploying Linux-based servers instead of using Microsoft’s development tools.<\/p>\n

WSL1 translated Linux system calls into Windows ones, but WSL2 runs a full Linux kernel for increased speed.<\/p>\n

WSL would be a practical way to get started with Linux if you have no experience with a Linux system. You can learn the command line in a familiar environment without rebooting like you would have to do on a dual-boot system. Running WSL instead of a separate Windows distro also helps eliminate the hardware support headaches that used to be more common on Linux systems since more hardware has worked with Windows.<\/p>\n

\n Azure Linux
\n <\/h2>\n

\n A real Linux distro from…<\/h3>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft stopped fighting Linux\u2014now it’s building it https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/microsoft-stopped-fighting-linux-now-its-building-it\/ Publish Date: 2026-07-12 06:31:00 Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":288543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static0.howtogeekimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/wm\/2026\/04\/a-laptop-screen-showing-various-microsoft-365-apps.jpg?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-288542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288544,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288542\/revisions\/288544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}