Microsoft made big waves when it announced various Linux distros would be coming to the Windows Store for Windows 10 developers to enjoy. The news came after the company unveiled Windows 10 S, a locked-down version of pure Windows which only lets users run applications from the Store. Therefore, it was assumed those on the 10 S operating system could enjoy the distros like any other Windows user. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case whatsoever.
According to Rich Turner, a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft over on MSDN, none of the Linux distros announced will be able to run on Windows 10 S. The reason? “There are some apps that are not allowed to run on Windows 10 S, including all command-line apps, shells and Consoles.” So in other words, Microsoft just won’t let the distros run.
Boo!
Now in all fairness, Linux command lines, shells, and Consoles of any type do need required system-level privileges to operate properly, which is where the $50 upgrade to Windows 10 Pro comes into place that can further free up 10 S and instantly allow users to run the distros on their machine. But for those who wanna stick with Windows 10 S, Microsoft says the OS isn’t suitable/built for developers to do their work off of which is the main reason they’re blocking interested parties from running these utilities, including Ubuntu, Suse, and Fedora. In theory, the distros could run on Windows 10 S since they are packaged properly and shipped through the Windows Store, but I guess we’ll never really know unless someone figures out a hack to install them on the OS.
Turner’s blog post which goes further into detail as to why the Linux distros won’t work on Windows 10 S is pretty interesting. Not only does he describe Microsoft’s reasoning behind the decision, but he does it in a pretty angry tone of voice. It’s definitely worth your time if you get a chance to check it out.
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