Delicious bit of commentary <https://www.xda-developers.com/wsl-keeps-getting-better-and-its-because-microsoft-is-finally-admitting-where-developers-want-to-be/> on what the new version 3 of Microsoft’s Windows Services for Linux means for the software development landscape. So what is happening? Microsoft is now offering Coreutils (the main core set of Linux command-line tools) for Windows. And by popular demand, you don’t even need to have WSL present in order to install it on your Windows system now. And if you have WSL, you can now run Docker containers without having to add any other tooling. Problem, though: ... Microsoft really does need to make its OS comfortable for Linux developers to work in, because the alternative involves people ditching Windows entirely. For Microsoft to maintain its user base, it has to ensure that its operating system can do everything better than its competitors, and if that includes allowing people to code Linux apps instead of using its own tools, then that's what it needs to do. But if what its operating system is supposedly “doing better than competitors” is “running a Linux stack”, then pretty much by definition, native Linux itself will always do that better than any Windows-with-Linux-bag-hanging-off-the-side two-headed FrankenOS can manage. But yes, a hybrid environment does at least offer some sense of familiarity to those who have spent too long in the Windows world -- easier than jumping straight into the deep end of a pure-Linux environment. In other words, all Microsoft can do, really, is help ease the transition away from Windows to Linux. Instead of slowing the move by making the Windows environment more attractive to stay with for just a little bit longer, it could, paradoxically, help to speed it up. The final section heading spells it out: “WSL is Microsoft admitting that developers want to be elsewhere”. No two ways about it.