Microsoft unveiled that a Linux command line will come packed into Windows 10, showing that parts of the discontinued Project Astoria live on.
Windows will grow after the addition of the Bash shell (developed by GNU), which established itself as a standard on several Linux distribution systems (including OS X).
What this implies is that coders now can write their .sh Bash scripts on Windows. The company noted that this will function via a new Linux subsystem in Windows 10. Microsoft teamed up with Canonical to deliver the subsystem.
"[W]e are delighted to stand behind Ubuntu for Windows, committed to addressing the needs of Windows developers exploring Linux in this amazing new way, and excited at the possibilities heralded by this unexpected turn of events," says Canonical founder, Mark Shuttleworth.
Shuttleworth notes that this moment was both surprising and unpredictable a few years ago.
Canonical's expertize came in handy, as the company delivered Microsoft a system image containing the Ubuntu versions of the diverse command-line tools that reside in a Linux distribution.
Microsoft, meanwhile, developed Project Astoria, its proprietary tool for running Android apps on Windows 10 Mobile. During the project, the company compiled a Linux subsystem for Windows that would help the integration of the two platforms.
Even if Microsoft pulled the plug on Project Astoria in February, bits and pieces of it surfaced in Windows Insider Previews.
At its recent Build conference in San Francisco, the company announced that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will bring a pleasant surprise: developers will get the chance to run the popular bash shell from Unix. What is more, coders will get to toy around with the standardized Unix command-line environment.
Currently, the possibilities are restricted to utilizing a Linux-like command-line environment, but this could translate into operating a multitude of Linux programs natively on Windows.
Windows has previously attempted to accommodate the Unix operating system via various subsystems. As early as Windows NT, Microsoft had a POSIX subsystem that offered basic support to standardized versions of APIs from Unix. By using the (third party) Interix subsystem, the feature was vastly extended and led to quite a number of Unix command-line tools. Microsoft purchased Interix and rebranded it, thus allowing support for a Unix-like mode until Windows 8.
