Re: [PLUG] Microsoft grafts (most) Linux commands onto Windows

[InterLinked via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On 6/5/2026 1:48 PM, Walt Mankowski via plug wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 04, 2026 at 04:53:25PM -0400, InterLinked via plug wrote:
> > On 6/4/2026 10:07 AM, jeffv via plug wrote:
> > > Grep this: Microsoft grafts (most) Linux commands onto Windows
> > >
> > > https://www.theregister.com/os-platforms/2026/06/03/grep-this-microsoft-grafts-most-linux-commands-onto-windows/5250796
> > >
> > >
> > > Coreutils serves over 75 Unix commands in Windows and PowerShell command
> > > lines
> > Unix commands like grep, gcc, bash, perl, etc. have been available natively
> > on Windows for a quarter-century now, see:
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Services_for_UNIX
> >
> > The UNIX subsystem is built into Windows (well, the more premium editions of
> > it, like Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate); the tools themselves have to be
> > separately downloaded, but it's a simple install. I believe most of the GNU
> > utilities are included.
> >
> > Then, you can run tools like grep, sed, etc. from Command Prompt. No
> > emulators, virtualization, etc. is being used:
> >
> > C:\Users\interlinked>grep
> > usage: grep [-abcEFGHhIiLlnoPqRrSsUvwx] [-A num] [-B num [-C[num]]
> >          [-e pattern] [-f file] [--binary-files=value] [--context[=num]]
> >          [--line-buffered] [pattern] [file ...]
> >
> > Not exactly the same thing, but the extent to which "grep available on
> > Windows in 2026" and even things like WSL have been "revolutionary" have
> > always been overhyped, IMO.
> I used cygwin on my Windows boxes for a long time. It was fine in that
> it gave you a Unix-style command line where you could do things like
> grep files on your Windows filesystem in a familiar way.

I wasn't talking about cygwin, which is a 3rd party install. This was/is 
100% native Windows stuff.

> The nice thing about WSL2 is that it feels much more like you're
> running a proper Linux distribution on a VM on your Windows box. I'm
> installing normal Ubuntu packages and can run X11 apps. (OK, the only
> one I ever run is Emacs. I'm sure there are some that don't work.)

Yeah, I get that, though I've never wanted to do that myself.
I use separate Linux VMs (not running on my PC, but some other server) 
for most of my development and other *nix tasks.
Aside from simple things like grep, I don't find most of the *nix tools 
actually that useful on Windows myself.

> It sounds to me that the nice thing about this announcement isn't that
> the tools were never available, but rather that people won't need to
> install them since they'll be installed by default.

The UNIX subsystem was built into Windows, though the tools were a 
separate download from the Microsoft site (now accessible via the 
Wayback Archive).

> Plus they'll be
> officially supported by Microsoft.

UNIX subsystem was officially supported too.

> This will likely make it easier for Windows admins to start using POSIX tools in Powershell, which sounds like a good thing.

I'm not sure how this would make anything easier that the previous 
methods didn't already accomplish.
The fact that this new way only works on Windows 11 alone probably won't 
make it easier to do *anything*.

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