Microsoft announced today at the Build 2021 developer conference that support for running Linux GUI applications is now available through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
The feature was first released a month ago and allows Windows 10 users to run Linux applications (X11 and Wayland) with a GUI (graphical user interface) without using a virtual machine.
Even though customers have asked Microsoft to run Linux GUI applications in WSL since at least 2016Redmond announced plans to introduce the feature last year, at BUILD 2020.
“Linux Graphical User Interface (GUI) application support is now available in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL),” as the company announced today at the developer event Microsoft Build 2021 of this year. “WSL enables users to run their favorite Linux tools, utilities, and applications for developer workflows.”
This new feature is known as WSLg (short for Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI) and it was officially added with the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21364 in the Dev Channel on April 21, 2021.
WSLg requires at least Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21362+ and “will generally be available alongside the next version of Windows”, as Microsoft explains on the the project’s GitHub page.
This means that the feature is now available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel, but those in the Beta and Release Preview channels can also access it by upgrading to the Dev Channel.
The feature will most likely be made available to all customers later this year with the launch of Windows 10 21H2, the next version of Windows 10.
How to Get Help for Linux GUI Applications Right Now
A detailed view of how this feature works, including additional technical details, is available in this blog post. Detailed instructions on installing WSLg on Windows 10 computers are available here.
Microsoft also provides step by step advice on how to install and launch Linux GUI applications on your PC. Once installed, they can be launched from the Start menu or a terminal window.
“Please note that WSLg is only compatible with WSL 2 and will not work for WSL distribution configured to work in WSL 1 mode”, Microsoft said. “Make sure your Linux distribution is configured to run in WSL 2 mode, otherwise switch to WSL 2.”
WSLg starts “a companion system distribution, containing a Wayland, an X server, a pulse audio server and everything else needed to make Linux GUI applications communicate with Windows”, as explained by Craig Loewen, lead of the Windows development platform program.
“Once you are done using the GUI applications and terminate your WSL distribution, the system distribution will also automatically terminate its session.
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