The latest version of Windows 10, currently rolling out to Windows Insiders, includes the ability to run Linux graphical user interfaces (GUI).
It also adds an Eco mode in Task Manager, which reins in programs consuming excessive system resources and shows classifications for Edge browser components—Tabs, Browser processes (Browser, GPU Process, Crashpad), and Utility plugins (Utility: Audio Service Extensions).
The features are considered “experimental,” and there’s no indication when they might roll out to the stable version of Windows 10. They’re now available to Windows Insiders in the Dev channel, which is more experimental than the Beta and Release Preview channels, and are not part of the 21H1 Windows 10 update expected soon.
Eco mode can be applied to all of a process' sub-processes. “You can expand the process tree to apply Eco mode on one of its child processes," according to Microsoft’s blog post. Some apps will apply Eco mode by themselves; Chrome and Edge are testing the feature currently.
The build introduces other new features, too, including an on-screen touch keyboard for the Japanese 50-on system. It also includes a good number of fixes and minor interface tweaks, such as the warning language when you need to reauthorize your account and the way Night Light dims the screen. Note too that some features will arrive outside of the big updates, in what Microsoft is calling Windows Experience Feature Pack Updates.
Graphical Linux Apps on Windows 10
The new GUI support will be part of the existing Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which until this point has only supported command-line Linux functionality. The capability is still mostly of interest to developers, who can now run both programming software like editors but also test their GUI Linux apps using WSL.
In a video accompanying the blog post, Microsoft Program Manager for WSL Craig Loewen showed a test app running in the Linux version of Microsoft Edge, the new default web browser in Windows 10. It displayed a little penguin in the taskbar icon to indicate that fact. Loewen also noted that the WSL also supports audio, both speaker output and microphone input. To demonstrate this, he showed the Audacity application recording sound from his electric guitar.
For even more wow factor, Loewen showed Gazebo, a 3D robotics simulator, along with the RViz app showing the robot’s view of the simulated world.
The demo also showed WSL’s support for using the Windows computer’s GPU. Just as with standard Windows applications, you can use Alt-Tab to switch among running Linux GUI apps.
Until now, Windows support for Linux was text-based, and only of interest to developers and the technorati. With the addition of support for GUI apps, its appeal becomes broader for those who want to run Linux with actual interfaces, though it's still pretty niche.
For more on the WSL project, visit aka.ms/wslg or read the developer blog post on the new GUI support. To sign up for Windows 10 pre-release builds, head to insider.windows.com.