Microsoft has significantly improved the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) since its debut in 2016, enhancing performance and usability while adding features. At the recent Build developer conference, Microsoft announced a shift to nearly complete open-source status for WSL, allowing developers to contribute directly to its evolution. Senior Engineer Pierre Boulay emphasized the contributions from the community that shaped WSL, despite the remaining closed-source components related to older kernel drivers and filesystem redirection. This transition is expected to accelerate improvements and feature development for WSL.
"WSL could never have been what it is today without its community," writes Microsoft Senior Software Engineer Pierre Boulay in the company's blog post.
We've seen how much the community has contributed to WSL without access to the source code, and we can't wait to see how WSL will evolve now that the community can make direct code contributions to the project.
Only two elements of WSL remain closed-source for now: an lxcore.sys kernel driver used for WSL 1 and the p9rdr.sys file.
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