Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Week 7 [13-19.06.2016] What do you think of Bash on Windows?

Recently, I was able to experience how amazing is to have Bash is up and running under Windows OS. Especially, considering all the kernel/user space differences in addition to how file system operates differently.

See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2016/04/22/windows-subsystem-for-linux-overview/

Some interesting pieces;

"WSL is a collection of components that enables native Linux ELF64 binaries to run on Windows. It contains both user mode and kernel mode components."

"WSL executes unmodified Linux ELF64 binaries by virtualizing a Linux kernel interface on top of the Windows NT kernel."

Although the main question looks like something more product specific, actually Bash on Windows is a very recent and decent sample on virtualization.

1) What do you know about Virtualization?
2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?

18 comments:

  1. Hi, to be honest I don't know much about virtualization. I'm more kind of end user, not interested in technical details. I use it for quick setting up development environment, trying out new software or libraries without a risk of blowing my operating system. On a daily basis I use linux, so I can appreciate bash, especially when compared to windows command line. Unfortunately I have no copy of Windows OS, so I won't be able to check windows' bash.
    Regarding unification of platforms, I think that there is no business need for companies to unify or integrate, so I'm not expecting a turnabout in this matter. Some time ago I tried to migrate disk image from one VM provider to another, but I had problems with that. I haven't check if it works for some time now, so maybe unification can introduce this kind of functionality - some common "driver" to virtual disk image among all providers.

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    Replies
    1. > I think that there is no business need for companies to unify or integrate,

      Imagine a developer targeting both Windows and posix. No need for VM to struggle during development?

      Delete
  2. Dear "obastemur" I will appreciate if you can follow the title rule in the future during your post creation process.

    Going back to your questions:

    I use virtualization on a daily bases. I have two (VMWare and VirtualBox) running on my work PC. Occasionally I use different ones as well. I would like to reduce it to one. In my opinion it won’t happened soon. What you paid attention to It's a tactical move by Microsoft. I think that Microsoft's move was not as open as it might first appear. Microsoft appears to want to extend its monopoly. If the intention is to really play nicely with others in the open standards game, then why they patent applications?

    R.
    Marcin

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  3. I am afraid I don't have much to say about Bash on Windows because I don't use it. However, I am also the end user of apps provided by virtualization. As an end user I would like to raise the issue of the efficiency of the applications provided with virtualization.
    Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms?
    Well, after one of the recent SAS technical conferences (SAS is a provider of business intelligence software) I was informed that the direction of the development of SAS software is to provide in the nearest future a cloud infrastructure mainly.
    3) Unified? What does this actually mean for the end user?
    It is hard for me to say. It means job cuts, no UNIX, Windows admins will be needed (in the SAS case).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >> It means job cuts, no UNIX, Windows admins will be needed

      No worries, this current approach is DEV mode only.

      Delete
  4. Virtualization is a computing mechanism which is to run multiple systems, servers or applications on the same physical server. Virtualization is a key technology component in cloud computing.
    Virtualization based on the following mechanism:

    - A main operating system (called "host") is installed on a single physical server. This system is used to host other operating systems.
    - Virtualization software (called "hypervisor") is installed on the main operating system. It allows the creation of independent and closed environments which will be installed on other operating systems ( "guest systems"). These environments are "virtual machines."
    - A guest system is installed in a virtual machine that operates independently of other systems invited to other virtual machines. Each virtual machine has access to the physical server resources (memory, disk space ...).

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    ReplyDelete
  5. 1) What do you know about Virtualization?
    I'm using VM Esxi on daily basis. I've a lot of vm's on my server, it's very useful, it's cheap, flexible and most of the time easy to maintain. Look at Azure, Virtualization is the most important part of it.
    2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
    I don't think so. Microsoft won't allow to do such thing. Unless they will get enough money from it.
    3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?
    For end user? Nothing, they don't care most of the time. If you are asking what admins will think, that's entirely different story.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources. There are three areas of IT where virtualization is used: network virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization. Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise IT that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the IT environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed. The usual goal of virtualization is to centralize administrative tasks while improving scalability and workloads.

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  7. Hey, thanks for bringing up this topic. I haven't tried bash on Windows yet. In fact I didn't upgrade yet to Windows 10 on any of the machines that I posess and I am not sure whether I will yet. Recently I saved a conference session because the laptop connected to the prompter was running Windows 10 and had all sorts of problems, we then connected mine which run good old win7 and everything went smoothly. ;)
    As for your first question, our colleagues already define virtualization pretty well so I won't focus on that aspect.
    Regarding the other questions, this unification might be costly for the performance of the system. I am not sure what the impact is right now for bash on Windows, maybe somebody can do tests and compare it on a native Linux vs virtualized on Windows.

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  8. Unfortunately, I do not know on that. What does this mean for the end user - like any unification - usually less a problem - maybe except security. I'm very sorry, but I haven't opinion on this question.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  9. 1) What do you know about Virtualization?
    2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
    3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?


    Virtualization is a very usefull tool, especialy when with new tools like Docker. Unification is not a solution for every problem. Of course we should unify some kind of software and tools
    but we need to remember that sometime we need a very specialized tools that suit best for specific problem.

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  10. This package is very nice and convenient for people who are used to and like Linux. For most of the people, who use their computers daily under Windows, and almost never use command line interface, this package represents very little value.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am afraid I have never used bash in Windows.
    Generally virtualization is a really usefull thing. I recently worked a bit with Docker and I really liked it. No matter what technology was used, everything can nicely work all together at the same server, without a big effort from a developer side.
    Unification to the certain level is good, but we should not unified everything, because usually different technologies have different purposes and are optimal solutions for the certain cases.

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  12. 1) What do you know about Virtualization?
    I only use VMware. Bash on Windows seems to be a promising invention.

    2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
    Taking into consideration the Bash, we can say it might become a trend.

    3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?
    Easier access to applications working on different OS.

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  13. Virtualization is mechanizm which allows run different systems in one working station / serwer. Shortly: one machine / hardware, many virtual stations. Unification is very good in my opinion. If we will work at similar "environment" then more people can focus their effort on platform development. But as David wrote some kind of solutions require technical dedicated environment supported by special platforms (for example when we are talking about machines, etc.). From end user point of view there should not be any difference between current software and its unified twin. Otherwise this topic has not future.

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  14. 1) What do you know about Virtualization?
    I know something about Virtualization. It is fundamental for cloud computing.

    2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
    Of course. Docker container are one of the examples of cross-platform virtualization.

    3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?
    Unified to me means that it works independently to operating system.

    ReplyDelete

  15. 1) What do you know about Virtualization?
    In computing, virtualization refers to act of creating a virtual version of something, including virtual computer hardware platforms, operating systems, storage devices and computer networks – that is definitione from Wikipedia and it is that same that I would like to say.
    2) Considering all the cloud etc. developments, can we expect more unified platforms ?
    It depends on many thinks, but in my opinion we need more unfield platforms for computer operating systems and smartphones operatint systems – that situation should change your phone in small computer.
    3) Unified ? What does this actually mean for the end user ? US ?
    I think that resolution could give more flexible access to other aplicattions.

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  16. Long time ago, on Linux you could run windows notepad with the help of Wine. Now you can start bash in windows. As previously I would treat it as a curiosity and nothing else. I had the pleasure of working with several larger installations based on VMware, IBM and Microsoft when it comes to virtualization. Certainly for many companies it is a technology can not be underestimated. I think that the Cisco Unified Computing System is another interesting solution for a large end client, when we talk about unification.

    ReplyDelete