Microsoft announces to launch open source a WSL Sample for Linux Distribution

Microsoft recently announced that it will open source a Windows Subsystem for Linux sample for distribution maintainers, paving the way for more Linux distributions to go to the Microsoft Store and install on Windows 10. From the GitHub project introduction page, developers of WSL have enjoyed two major benefits. First, it helps release managers to easily package and submit to the Microsoft Store, and the process is the same as other ordinary Windows 10 apps.

These Linux distributions are packaged into an appx file format that is identical to other Microsoft Store apps. Once approved, users can easily download and install with one click.

In addition, developers are allowed to create their custom Linux distributions and then sideload on a Windows 10 machine. Microsoft stated:

“We know that many Linux distros rely entirely on open source software, so we would like to bring WSL closer to the OSS community. We hope open sourcing this project will help increase community engagement and bring more of your favorite distros to the Microsoft Store.”

You can find the distro launcher repo on GitHub.