1y ago

We already have Linux at home!

I have to work with Win11 for work and just noticed the lil Tux man in Microsofts Explorer. Likely to connect to WSL.

Apparently now Microsoft wants people to keep using Windows in a really interesting way. By simply integrating it within their own OS!

This way, people don't have to make the super hard and complicated switch to linux, but they get to be lazy, use the preinstalled container and say "See, I use Linux too!".

While this is generally a good thing for people wanting to do things with the OS, it is also a clear sign that they want to make it feel "unneccessary" to switch to Linux, because you already have it!

WSL alone was already a smart move, but this goes one step further. This is a clever push on their side, increasing the barrier to switch even more, since now there is less of a reason to. They are making it too comfortable too stay within Microsofts walls.

On a different note: Should the general GNU/Linux community do the same? Should we integrate easier access to running Winblows apps on GNU/Linux?
Currently I still find it too much of a hastle to correctly run Winblows applications, almost always relying on Lutris, Steams proton or Bottles to do the work for me.

I think it would be a game changer to have a double click of an EXE file result in immediate automatic wine configuration for easy and direct use of the software, even if it takes a big to setup.

I might just be some fedora using pleb, but I think having quick and easy access to wine would make many people feel much more comfortable with the switch.

Having a similar system to how Winblows does it, with one container for all your .exe programs would likely be a good start (instead of creating a new C drive and whatever for every program, which seems to be what Lutris and Bottles does).

EDIT: Uploaded correct image

35 comments

Small addition:
Now that VR works essentially perfectly on GNU/Linux, even on Wayland with Gnome and an nvidia GPU, I have now stopped dualbooting for occasional VR Chat and Beat Saber (which are VR games).
In my opition, when looking away from online games with anticheat, Microsofts Office and adobes whatever software, there is no reason to use Winblows anymore.
The amount of configuration GNU/Linux gives me is truly empowering, running any scripts I want using shortcuts being a big one for me. ::: spoiler Some shortcuts I use daily
plaintext

Super+E -> Nautilus (obvious) Super+W -> Firefox Super+Y -> Youtube Super+C -> Local LLM chat Super+G -> Launch Godot Generally vim navigation
:::
- Ah! A fellow beat saber enjoyer.
  Bows in the customary greeting that is visible in multiplayer
  
  Actually, Beat Saber was just an example, I mostly use VR for gamedev and Jet Island (cool VR game on Steam, maybe check it out).
  Got a question though, it would be SUPER amazing to have some kind of open alternative to VR Chat. Like the Fediverse, but in realtime.
  I know that this is probably harder to turn into a real thing, but IMAGINE!!!
  VR Chat already has this feeling how it's all about people colaborating, and adding the power of self-hosting to the mix, alongside removing ads would be super duper amazing...
  (I'll probably make a post about this on some VR community soon, this seems too interesting to keep local to this comment)
- What VR Headset are you using? I own a quest 2 and heard that it's not that well working with Linux wirelessly
  
  I'm using an index. You can use Envision, as it supports wireless headsets and gives you a nice interface to set things up.
  That is also what I use, as Envision also has support for cabled headsets.
  In general, the lvra website is a great source for cool foss VR stuff on linux.
  
  I'm on the Index. Afaik steamvr is the only thing that really works on linux.
- It is currently impossible to run Digital Combat Simulator on linux, so I dualboot. Also the occasional xbox exclusive game.
So they've already embraced and now they're extending. Give it a bit more time and they will start to eliminate.
- They cannot do that. The foss community is too strong to fail, many people use GNU/Linux specifically because it's not owned by EvilCo™ and EvilHoldings™.
  
  Well they certainly won't win, but I feel like they will try at some point.
Currently I still find it too much of a hastle to correctly run Winblows applications, almost always relying on Lutris, Steams proton or Bottles to do the work for me.
That's...uhhh... that's why they were made? So that your average Joe Schmoe, like myself and you, doesn't have to muddle through trying to get wine set exactly right so that the windows program functions. It sounds like you're complaining about the solution to the problem.
I guess there could be work done to just make it so if you double click on a .exe install file in just boots whatever has the best install preset, or give you a pop up with options for lutris/proton/bottles.
- ok fair u got me there. Lutris really is a solution, but it still feels like some game-specific launcher you gotta run to run normal programs.
  i was mostly complaining about the double click thing.
Personally WSL has always been riddled with issues for me. I mainly used it for dev things before I switched to linux entirely. Recently I came back to Windows to try some of AMDs new graphics driver features and decided to try out WSL 2. Hell, Windows fucks up so much basic shit in there, i couldnt even run 'git init' because some permission issue with drive mounting. Had to move my entire project to a separate drive just to make it work. The way Windows handles the filsystem, permissions and "cross-OS" functionality is so weird and always results in some issue, making the Linux experience feel significantly more wonky than it needs to be. Performance is also a pain, since i had to love my project to a disk that was not part of WSL reading and writing files in VS Code becomes significantly slower.
I have a pretty high end rig and even my PC runs slow when using WSL, its great to have an option for linux in windows but when a docker container or even just a VirtualBox machine performs better than WSL i have no fucking clue why youd use it.
Thanks for listening to my rant. Take it with a grain of salt ig, maybe im just incompetent and doing something very wrong.
Most distributions and DEs already package wine in a set it and forget it configuration. Wine by default has a system wide prefix such that clicking on any exe in the file system automatically runs it on the default prefix. This way of doing things predates wsl by a long time. It is just safer and better practice to setup a new prefix for every software, specially if they are games.
- Could you maybe name some distros and DEs which have this feature pre-built?
  I have used mint, Debian and Fedora and none of them seem to have this kind of feature.
  
  Bazzite comes with wine all setup by default. KDE's file managerl can integrate running exe with wine on a default prefix automatically.
  
  i have fedora and double clicking exe files runs them automatically with wine. did you install wine through the distro repos or from a third party?
Extend, Embrace…
What next? Extinguish?
Heh, let them try.
- I actually never heard of this saying, but I just looked up. Woah, that's really a phrase they use internally, hm? Crazy.
  And it does accurately describe what they try to do here. It can't really work like that, since many people use GNU/Linux specifically because it's not owned by EvilCo™. But they could probably take over some part of the server-hosting business like this. And that is a scary thought.
  Imagine, they could make it super easy to deploy things by incoperating premade docker containers into their UI thingy. That's - like - real bad.
  
  This is the fairly known thing, I'm amazed you never heard of it.
Embrace and Extend. An old and tried technique proven to work deeply integrated into the dna of what MS are.
I'd argue that a lot of the other "additions" and "improvements" make any improvement in comfort irrelevant, as they are unbearable.
On a sidenote, you can set up a generic bottle in Bottles, and then set things up so that double clicking any miscellaneous .exe files just runs them in that bottle.
- There is winapps that does the bottle thing for you in a background vm.
  https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps
  
  So... Is that kinda like a linux subsystem for windows?
  
  woah WOAH HEY THERE this seems SUPER useful!!!
  I will totally check this out!
- I don't know what you mean in your first argument. What exactly do you mean by "a lot of the other additions and improvements"? And what about them becomes unbearable?
  I will have a look at the Bottles thing you brought up. Thank you for sharing that!
  
  I'm sarcastically referring to microsofts telemetry, UI changes, and anything else they try to sell that a lot of people simply don't want or like.
It is basically a symlink to the WSL home directory.
WSL is fine for doing ssh type stuff or simple things but it is wonky for full distro use experience.
I don't remind the exact name but one of the present Linux distro does this one click exe trick really good (something like windows Linux)
- I remember, I think I also saw that video by that one Linux/windows tech guy

35 comments