Do you know, you can now run wonderful Ubuntu and other Linux distros bash on your Windows 10. This is not a virtual machine, nor a container or something like Cygwin. Instead its a Windows 10 feature and offers a full subsystem.
This subsystem is intended to provide users a way to use Linux commands without even leaving Windows. Although you can also install Linux alongside Windows in dual boot, but you might not want to. As dual booting can be a hassle for beginners.
If you are learning shell scripting it makes quite easy to practice and more importantly you don’t even need to make any special changes for that.
This is possible because Microsoft worked with Canonical(Publisher of Ubuntu) and other. Which resulted in offering of a complete Ubuntu-based Bash Shell environment.
How to install Linux Terminal on Windows
To install this bash terminal on Windows you must have a 64-bit based Windows 10. As this is not supported on the 32-bit version. You can check this in Settings > System > About, where you’ll find the System type entry.
If it does not read a 64-bit operating system and you are using 64-bit hardware then you need to update Windows to 64-bit first. Then to install you also need to be on Windows 14393 or newer version.
To begin installing open Control Panel, then click on Programs. Inside Programs click on Turn Windows feature on or off. Scroll down and tick on the Windows subsystem for Linux, then click on the OK button.
Now wait till you see Restart now, then click on Restart now. After Restart open Microsoft Store by searching in search bar.
Now search for Linux and you will see options like Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Ubuntu 20.04, SUSE Linux, Debian. You can install whichever you want to use, but if you are new you should try using Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is one of the most beginner-friendly and has a huge online community. If you want to do penetration testing you can install Kali Linux on Windows. This is better for those who want to learn to hack, at first you can practice without making a lot of changes to your system.
WSL is not Linux
Although technically speaking this can’t be called Linux as Linux is a kernel. And this system is working on top of Windows. This can be called a GNU/Linux without Linux. But there is good news as Microsoft will be providing the Linux kernel from the next update.
This Linux kernel will be kept up to date and will also allow users to use the latest kernel versions. This will also increase the number of distros that can be installed in WSL. This will also provide a performance boost.
We hope you liked what you read and here is the list of best Linux distros for beginners if you want to install Linux distros.