What is Windows 10’s Ubuntu BASH Compatibility Layer?
Some thought that
BASH in Windows 10 is a VM (virtual machine) inside Windows. When it
is actually a compatibility layer like WINE (Wine is not an emulator)
but running Ubuntu inside Windows. It’s like the other way around.
Microsoft worked with Canonical’s engineers to bring this feature
as partners. So, stop being a child and grow up! The fight between
them is over (and Ubuntu won). :)
How much of Ubuntu
are they gonna bring to Windows 10? Actually, they are planning 100%
compatibility. So, all apps in Ubuntu should work in the near future,
but they are just solving it steadily and should launch maybe
sometime next year? (I hope)
Why did they do
this? The answer lies in Windows Azure. Windows Azure is a cloud
service by Microsoft. Competing with the likes of Google’s Compute
Engine and Amazon ECS (Elastic Cloud Service). With Microsoft Azure,
you can create Ubuntu instances and use that to provide application,
database services on the fly, without any hardcore configuration by
using a GUI– I tried it and it just works! Especially with
Canonical’s JuJu web interface for cloud management. It’s really
easy, and maybe that is why it became so rapidly popular. Microsoft
loves this because they don’t have to maintain the code because
it’s Canonical’s job anyway, all they need is to provide the
infrastructure or the big data centers that powers all of this and of
course some technical support. This Azure business jumped to a 150%
increase in Microsoft’s year-on-year revenues, and became their
core business moving away from Windows as their cash cow. Amazon
provides a similar service and that’s also why it’s number one in
the market.
Then, the answer is
obvious. They wanted for developers to choose Windows 10 as their
sole OS without running several VMs in your machine. It’s like one
OS to rule them all kind of thing. Look at their IDE like Visual
Studio. You can already make apps for Android, iOS, and of course
Windows. You don’t have to use myriads of IDEs, jumping from one to
another because it’s all here. I guess this is their strategy for
people to consider Windows 10 as their main OS for everything.
Bringing all of them (developers) back to Windows. I think they are
capturing market share and they’re already a monopoly! It may come
as worse, but I think it’s better for all of us; we should have a
choice.