Microsoft has published an update to the WSL 2.7.0 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) toolkit, which allows you to run Linux applications on Windows. Version 2.7.0 was the second major release since WSL’s command line utilities, background processes for Linux environments, and services for running a virtual machine were made available under the MIT license. Prior to this, the WSL components associated with Linux kernel and the graphics stack wslg were open source, and all associated tools were proprietary.
WSL provides a virtual machine with a full-fledged Linux kernel (based on the 6.6 branch), which can run Linux distributions. The kernel includes WSL-specific changes, such as optimizations to reduce startup time and memory consumption, the ability for Windows to reclaim memory freed by Linux processes, and settings to eliminate unnecessary drivers and subsystems. The system is installed in a separate disk image (VHD) with an ext4 file system and a virtual network adapter.
Among the changes:
- The Linux kernel has been updated to version 6.6.114.
- Updated versions of the WSLg 1.0.71 graphics stack, .NET, Microsoft.NETCore.App.Runtime and NuGet packages.
- The wslsettings configurator has been improved.
- In wsl.conf added the automount.cgroups parameter for selecting the Cgroup version