- Build 2025 was about AI, but Microsoft also made the WSL Open Source
- The company knows how valuable its society of contributors has been
- Microsoft wants users to “engage in problem solving and learn together as a society”
Microsoft has officially Open Sourced Windows Subsystem to Linux on its annual software engineer and web developer conference, Microsoft Build 2025.
Most components are now open source, with the exception of a few items tied directly to Windows, with the source code available on GitHub.
At Open Sourcing WSL, Microsoft has opened it to direct contribution, functional development and bug fixes from the wider community, after acknowledging that society has already contributed significantly before its open sourcing.
“As the community behind WSL grew, WSL got several features such as GPU support, graphic application support (via WSLG) and support for Systemd,” explained Microsoft’s Pierre Boulay. “It eventually became clear that WSL to keep up with the growing community and function requests had to move faster and send separately from Windows.”
Boulay shared some of WSL’s history, including its separation from Windows in 2021, when it became its own package, distributed via Microsoft Store.
“WSL could never have been what it is today without its community. Even without access to WSLS source code, people have been able to make big contributions leading to what WSL is now,” Boulay added.
Despite the importance of WSL becoming open source, Chief Communications Officer Frank X Shaw wrote only a short note about it in the conference’s news book. An extract reads: “It facilitates collaboration between WSL users, enabling them to participate in the dissolution of the question and learn together as a society.”
It is not surprising that the core announcements at Build Centered about artificial intelligence with several updates issued to the company’s copilotagers to increase productivity across Microsoft 365 apps.
