Bash on Windows 10

[maflynn]

I've started playing around with the bash shell that is available in windows 10 anniversary addition.

So far, I was able to easily install fish, and midnight-commander. Its almost like I'm running ubuntu in a window. I'm getting more and more impressed.

 

[I7guy]

I use Ubuntu. After reading through some information on the internet it seems the Bash shell is fairly restrictive in that it can't run programs with a gui. Can you give some examples of how you would use this feature?

 

[lowendlinux]

I use Ubuntu. After reading through some information on the internet it seems the Bash shell is fairly restrictive in that it can't run programs with a gui. Can you give some examples of how you would use this feature?

SSH to one one my droplets, copy and move files, cron to schedule tasks like backup..

I'm going to have a play with it tonight after what will probably be hours of updates.

 

[JoelTheSuperior]

I use Ubuntu. After reading through some information on the internet it seems the Bash shell is fairly restrictive in that it can't run programs with a gui. Can you give some examples of how you would use this feature?

Why would you want to run GUI applications? What killer GUI apps does Linux have that you can't run on Windows?

This is mostly useful for developers, particularly web developers who target Linux-running servers and find the Linux subsystem to be invaluable for testing and development in general. They'll still run Atom or Sublime Text or whatever other text editor / IDE they choose on Windows, just with the Linux subsystem to run their other development tools and test.

With that said, if you are feeling adventurous there's nothing stopping you installing a Windows-friendly X server and using that for GUI-based Linux applications. I got xeyes working at least.

 

[maflynn]

Bash shell is fairly restrictive

Actually its quite robust.

You can run x windows and thus some GUI apps in a bash shell.
How to Run Graphical Linux Desktop Applications from Windows 10’s Bash Shell
Windows 10's Bash shell can run graphical Linux applications with this trick

it is geared for those who are developers, I enjoy the bash shell and so its a nice addition for me, though I still do much of my work in the cmd shell

 

[jerryk]

I use bash on Ubuntu on Windows quite often. It seems to be getting better and better.

 

[ventmore]

I'm currently using it for Ruby on Rails development on a surface 3 (with external display) whilst I decide whether to buy a new Mac now or wait a little. Works great.

Also, I'm using the Linux version of Sublime with an X server so as not to potentially corrupt anything. From what I've read, you shouldn't use windows apps to edit files in the Linux file system. Don't know if that extends to my ruby code, but better safe than sorry!

 

[boast]

I finally got it enabled this week.

Was pretty disappointed when I Cisco VPN into work but trying to SSH failed because it doesn't seem to redirect connections through the VPN

And also dragging files into the window to get the path doesn't work because the mount points are different.

 

[jerryk]

I'm currently using it for Ruby on Rails development on a surface 3 (with external display) whilst I decide whether to buy a new Mac now or wait a little. Works great.

Also, I'm using the Linux version of Sublime with an X server so as not to potentially corrupt anything. From what I've read, you shouldn't use windows apps to edit files in the Linux file system. Don't know if that extends to my ruby code, but better safe than sorry!

For simple text editing give VS Code a try. Runs on windows, maxos, and linux native apps. And free forever. Very nice code/text editor. Tons of a add-ins for linting and other syntax checking. As much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft does build great coding tools.

 

[ventmore]

For simple text editing give VS Code a try. Runs on windows, maxos, and linux native apps. And free forever. Very nice code/text editor. Tons of a add-ins for linting and other syntax checking. As much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft does build great coding tools.

Thanks for the suggestion. I Tried it a few months ago, and found it to be a perfectly good editor, but I'm very comfortable with sublime for now.

 

[maflynn]

I prefer UltraEdit myself, YMMV