An experience which allowed Linux and Windows applications to coexist, side-by-side, on a single unified desktop and where applications behaved in a predictable way. In terms of the user experience, we wanted to offer a unified and integrated desktop experience. Our WSLg project on GitHub has an architecture overview and details on how to get started building and running private versions of WSLg. We wanted to enable developers in the community to tinker with WSLg if they wanted to. We also wanted WSLg to be open-source and ensure that all communications between Linux, running in the WSL 2 virtual machine, and the Windows host followed either documented standard or defined in open-source code available on both end of the communication channel. We probably messed up a thing or two 😊… if you come across those, please don’t work around them, let us know by opening an issue on the WSLg GitHub project so we can fix them.

It avoids fragmentation and means better applications compatibility, which leads to happier users. We didn’t want Linux applications to have to adapt or change their behavior to run within WSLg, we wanted WSLg to follow all Linux desktop standard thoroughly, so things just work. We wanted applications to run as-is, without the need for any modifications.

It was also important for us to build a Linux applications desktop environment that closely followed standards. We didn’t want Linux on Windows to be stuck in the past, limited to X11 applications, and for WSLg to be a hindrance to the shift to Wayland. Almost all applications that our users were asking to run within WSL were X11 based, but as the Linux desktop community was moving toward Wayland, we felt it was important to support it. When we started looking at supporting GUI applications in WSL, we quickly decided that we wanted to support both X11 and Wayland applications. We hope you find this behind the scenes informative and interesting. We wanted to tell WSLg’s story, not just the architecture we picked, but also the reasons we made the various choices we made. If so, you’ve come to the right place!īe warned that this blog is fairly long and technical. If you landed on this blog, you’ve probably seen our announcement for GUI applications support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux being available to Windows Insiders and looking for more details on how WSLg was built.

Microsoft audio architecture driver xp