Microsoft’s new developer-optimized Windows embraces Linux even more

Microsoft is kicking off its Build developer conference today with a promise of making Windows a trusted platform for development. As the company continues to focus on performance and reliability fixes for Windows 11, it’s also creating a developer-optimized experience that bundles a lot of useful tools and apps and embraces Linux even further.

“We have optimized the Windows 11 experience for developers, bringing frequently used command line utilities, a familiar comfort shell, faster setup experience, a built-in way to create and interact with Linux containers on Windows and a new experimental Intelligent Terminal,” explains Windows chief Pavan Davuluri.

Microsoft has created Coreutils for Windows from the uutils open-source project, a cross-platform reimplementation of the GNU coreutils in Rust. “These are Linux-like command-line utilities that run natively on Windows,” says Davuluri. “Whether you’re moving between Linux, macOS, WSL, containers, or cloud environments, the commands and workflows you’ve built over years just work in your Windows environment.“

After open-sourcing the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) at Build last year, Microsoft is now integrating WSL even further into Windows with its new WSL containers. As the name implies, WSL containers is a built-in way to create, run, and interact with Linux containers on Windows. Microsoft has built both a command-line interface and API for WSL containers, allowing developers to also run Linux containers inside native Windows apps. WSL containers will be available in public preview in the coming months.

Microsoft is also building on the success of its existing Windows Terminal experience with a new experimental Intelligent Terminal for developers. “Intelligent Terminal provides context to your favorite agents via ACP (Agent Communication Protocol) so you can stay in the terminal and query, debug or complete any task on hand,” explains Davuluri. “It is based on the existing Windows Terminal experience, so you get everything it offers (tabs, profiles, themes, settings, shells) plus native agent CLI integration in the agent pane.”

The developer-friendly Windows changes also include the general availability of Windows Developer Configurations, a quick way to setup new machines with developer-optimized settings. Microsoft has been experimenting with this idea for a few years now, and the Developer Configurations will install tools like WSL, PowerShell 7, and Visual Studio code, while also enabling Git version control in File Explorer and showing hidden files.