Yeasterday I learned that the Windows Subsystem for Linux is not the first (or second) time Microsoft delved into Unix Microsoft had Xenix, their own version of Unix, but they also had a POSIX subsystem in Windows NT because Windows NT started off with the OS/2 2.0 codebase. It doesn't end here, because they also included many unix tools in their Windows Services For Unix (SFU) which later ended up bringing in the Interix (formerly OpenNT) system that they bought out from some other company, and was supported until Windows 7, deprecated in Windows 8, and replaced by the Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10. SFU offered gcc, ksh, vi, awk & grep, and X11 client tools.
1 year ago
@eph Right. The reasons why Microsoft delved into POSIX and Unix stuff though was because they've been trying to kill unix for a long time, lol. Windows NT was started for the main purpose of targeting the Unix userbase, and that's why OS/2 and Windows NT had a POSIX subsystem. And then Microsoft went and screwed over IBM and forked OS/2 into Windows NT, removed all OS/2 branding, and went all-in on Windows due to Windows 3.1's success, removed the OS/2 subsystem to keep people trapped in Windows, and then implemented Win32s on Windows 3.1 so that 3.1 users could run 32-bit Windows programs (a good way to make sure you keep the market you went after). · 1 year ago
Interesting! UNIX really is the standard · 1 year ago
One final thing, by the time of Windows Vista, SFU was replaced with SUA, or the Subsystem for Unix-based Applications, which also included Interix as a component. · 1 year ago