XPost: aus.computers   
   From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 18:18:22 -0500, Paul wrote:   
      
   > On Sat, 2/21/2026 4:13 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   >>   
   >> On Sat, 21 Feb 2026 09:17:49 -0500, Paul wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> When WSL1 first came out, some people had Firefox running three   
   >>> days after that (on top of XMing.exe). Later, Microsoft made WSLg   
   >>> so you no longer had to bodge your own Xorg/X11 solution .   
   >>   
   >> Now that that’s been superseded by WSL2, which brings a (mostly)   
   >> genuine Linux kernel into Windows, it’s only a matter of time until   
   >> Linux becomes a mandatory part of a Windows install.   
   >   
   > What's weird, is they dumped WSA and kept WSL. I guess the Android   
   > one wasn't magical enough.   
      
   Most likely it’s because the Linux kernel can do a better job of   
   hosting an Android userland than Windows itself can manage.   
      
   > Having HyperV virtual machines running on Windows isn't an essential   
   > part, so the treatment of WSL won't be any different.   
      
   I’m thinking more of what happens to the future of Windows. As you can   
   tell from all the missteps they keep making, it’s getting increasingly   
   hard for Microsoft to make quality changes to such a huge and tangled   
   legacy codebase. I can see the path of least resistance being for   
   Windows to delegate more and more core functionality to the Linux   
   kernel. So the Windows kernel itself gradually withers away, and all   
   that’s left of that is an API layer for userland.   
      
   (Did somebody say “WINE” ... ?)   
      
   If you were to ask anybody at Microsoft, they would strenuously deny   
   having any such plan--at least, not consciously. But, long-term, I   
   think it just makes business sense.   
      
   > In general, I don't get the feeling that the user base is all that   
   > interested in virtualization.   
      
   For what I describe above, they don’t need to care.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)