Microsoft announced the availability for Windows 11 of a variant of the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) environment, which provides running Linux executable files. Unlike WSL shipments for previous versions of Windows, the Windows 11 variant is not built into the system image, but is packaged as an application distributed through the Microsoft Store. At the same time, from the point of view of the technologies used, the WSL filling remained the same, only the installation and update method has changed.
It is noted that distribution through the Microsoft Store makes it possible to speed up the delivery of updates and new features of WSL, including allowing you to install new versions of WSL without being tied to the version of Windows. For example, when experimental features such as support for Linux graphics applications, GPU-side computing, and disk mounting are ready, the user will immediately be able to access them, without the need for a Windows update or the use of Windows Insider test builds.
Recall that in the modern WSL environment, instead of an emulator that translated Linux system calls to Windows system calls, an environment with a full-fledged Linux kernel is used. The proposed kernel for WSL is based on the release of the Linux 5.10 kernel, which is extended with WSL-specific patches, including optimizations to reduce kernel startup time, reduce memory consumption, return memory freed by Linux processes to Windows, and leave the minimum required set of drivers and subsystems in the kernel.
The kernel runs in a Windows environment using a virtual machine already running in Azure. The WSL environment runs in a separate disk image (VHD) with an ext4 file system and a virtual network adapter. The user-space components are installed separately and are based on builds from different distributions. For example, the Microsoft Store offers builds of Ubuntu, Debian GNU/Linux, Kali Linux, Fedora, Alpine, SUSE, and openSUSE for installation on WSL.
Source: opennet.ru