Why no openSUSE Leap for WSL?

English Open Chat
1

When running wsl --list --online I get:

  NAME                            FRIENDLY NAME
* Ubuntu                          Ubuntu
  Debian                          Debian GNU/Linux
  kali-linux                      Kali Linux Rolling
  OracleLinux_7_9                 Oracle Linux 7.9
  OracleLinux_8_10                Oracle Linux 8.10
  OracleLinux_9_5                 Oracle Linux 9.5
  SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP6    SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6
  openSUSE-Tumbleweed             openSUSE Tumbleweed

Why isn’t there “Leap” available? Likewise, could I install Thumbleweed and use the migration tool to change it to Leap, or could I change SLES (that requires a license) to Leap?

2

henk@boven:~> wsl --list --online
wsl: command not found
henk@boven:~>

3

It needs someone to maintain the images, else there isn’t anything official.

You can use bits and pieces from devel projects and install them via the Microsoft WSL instructions.

4

FYI ( For Your Information ): WSL = Windows Subsystem (for) Linux.

5

“wsl” is a Windows command :wink:

6

But isn’t it actually a “Linux subsystem for Windows” :wink:

7

No wonder I do not know it.

But the message behind it is of course that even in Open Chat it is worthwhile not to assume that every reader understands every mnemonic without any explanation what the subject of the discussion is.

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8

Well, you’d have to ask Microsoft why they called it what they did. :wink:

9

The Linux subsystem for (Windows and everything else) is KVM?

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10

KVM is a Linux-kernel specific thing. WSL runs on Windows; it uses Hyper-V, as I understand it. I do have TW running under it on my work laptop (which runs Win 11), and I know that the storage is set up behind the scenes as a virtual disk, but I haven’t really dug into how it works. It’s more than just a traditional VM, because it includes something like VMware Workstation’s “Unity” mode, allowing GUI applications to run directly on the Windows desktop.

11

WSL1 is a true subsystem. Sadly they decided to go the vm way with wsl2.

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12

Well, yeah, but it’s a translation layer somewhat like WINE, essentially (as I understand it), so compatibility becomes a little more difficult to manage in the long run.

https://medium.com/@vkeodt/from-windows-to-linux-with-wsl-how-wsl-really-works-54bcf5162b8e seems to be a good technical breakdown.

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