Microsoft Continued Advancing WSL2, Mesa & Its In-House Linux Distro In 2023
As part of the various end-of-year articles on Phoronix, here is a look at the most popular Microsoft Linux/open-source related news during 2023. Microsoft's CBL-Mariner continued becoming more capable, various graphics/video acceleration features and more were added to WSL2, they continued improving their WinGet open-source package manager, and continued working on open-source projects like ONNX and Cloud Hypervisor.
The most-viewed Microsoft news for 2023 included:
Linux Preparing To Disable Drivers For Microsoft's RNDIS Protocol
With the next Linux kernel cycle we could see upstream disable their driver support for Microsoft's Remote Network Driver Interface Specification (RNDIS) protocol due to security concerns.
WSL 1.3.10 Brings Experimental Memory Reclaim, Updated DXCore & Linux Kernel
Microsoft has published the latest release of their Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) implementation for running Linux distributions within the confines of Windows. With the WSL 1.3.10 update there is now experimental memory reclaim support and other changes.
Linux Features Loved By Microsoft Engineers Working On WSL2
In addition to Microsoft having a significant present at last week's Linux Security Summit, there were also multiple Microsoft engineers at the Linux Foundation's Open-Source Summit that was also taking place in Vancouver. Among the Microsoft Linux talks this week was a presentation on the Linux kernel usage by WSL2 -- including how it's moving closer to a mainline/upstream status and also mentions of Linux kernel features loved by Microsoft's engineering team.
Microsoft Releases A Big Update To Windows Subsystem For Linux, New Experimental Options
Microsoft has published a big feature update to Windows Subsystem for Linux "WSL" for running Linux binaries within the confines of Windows 11.
Microsoft Aims For Greater Script Execution Control On Linux
This week alongside several other Linux Foundation events in Vancouver was the Linux Security Summit. Commanding a significant presence at the Linux Security Summit was Microsoft.
Microsoft Adds Enterprise Security Features To WSL
With Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) continuing to prove popular mot only for end-users and independent developers but within organizations as well for having easy access to a Linux environment from the confines of Windows 11, Microsoft has added new enterprise-focused security options for WSL.
GNU Debugger "GDB" Adds Support For Microsoft's Debug Adapter Protocol
Merged today to the GNU Debugger (GDB) is initial support for the Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) that is a JSON-RPC interface for use by integrated development environments (IDEs) to better communicate with debuggers.
Microsoft Enables OpenGL 4.6 Support Over Direct3D 12
The week began with Microsoft taking its Mesa Direct3D 12 code from OpenGL 4.3 to OpenGL 4.4 and then a short time after that reaching OpenGL 4.5. Microsoft now closed out the week by managing to get OpenGL 4.6 implemented atop Direct3D 12.
Microsoft Pluton TPM CRB Functionality Merged Into Linux 6.3
Linus Torvalds merged to Linux 6.3 Git the TPM CRB support for Microsoft's controversial Pluton security co-processor that is initially found in the latest AMD Ryzen processors.
Microsoft .NET Runtime Lands Initial Code For RISC-V Support
A Phoronix reader pointed out that there are initial code that landed for adding RISC-V processor support to Microsoft's .NET runtime.
Microsoft Continues Building Out Its Linux Distribution With More Packages
Microsoft has published its latest CBL-Mariner 2.0.20230407 Linux distribution images this weekend as their in-house open-source OS that is used for a variety of purposes, mostly around Azure infrastructure.
Microsoft Officially Launches D3D12 GPU Video Acceleration For WSL Linux Use
For over a year I have been writing about how Microsoft has been working on Direct3D video acceleration for Mesa, getting VA-API mapped atop Direct3D 12 video APIs, video engine based effects, and other enablement around Direct3D 12 video support. Microsoft has today officially released the Direct3D 12 GPU video acceleration support now for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) users.
Microsoft ONNX Runtime 1.14 Released With A Big Intel AMX Performance Optimization
Microsoft on Friday released version 1.14 of their ONNX Runtime, a cross-platform, high performance machine learning inferencing and training accelerator.
Microsoft Gets OpenGL 4.3 Implemented Atop Direct3D 12 With Mesa
Microsoft engineers continue working on the Mesa drivers as part of their effort for implementing various industry standard APIs atop Direct3D 12. This support can be used in cases of Windows drivers lacking for these APIs as well as being used within WSL for the graphics support while relying on D3D12 with the host environment.
Microsoft Releases WinGet 1.4 For Improving Its Open-Source Package Manager
It's easy to forget that Microsoft maintains a command-line package manager for Windows... The open-source WinGet package manager is approaching three years since its announcement while it continues to not be as rich and robust of what Linux users for many years have enjoyed, but in any case it's continuing to be improved.
Microsoft Hyper-V Nested Hypervisor Support Comes For Linux 6.3
Several months back I wrote about Microsoft working on nested hypervisor support for Hyper-V with the Linux kernel. That work is now ready to go for the in-development Linux 6.3 cycle.
Microsoft's Dozen Up To A 98.5% Pass Rate For Vulkan 1.0
Microsoft's Dozen "dzn", which was merged to Mesa last year as Vulkan implemented on Direct3D 12, is onto a 98.5% pass rate for its Vulkan 1.0 coverage.
Wine 8.16 Restarts Work On Implementing Microsoft's Deprecated DirectMusic API
Wine 8.16 is out as the newest bi-weekly development release for this open-source software to enjoy Windows games and applications under Linux and other platforms.
Microsoft Looking To Add Windows Media Foundation Transforms "MFTs" To Mesa
In addition to Microsoft enabling OpenGL 4.6 over Direct3D 12 via Mesa, Microsoft engineers have also been working on some video improvements within the Mesa code-base.
Microsoft CBL-Mariner 2.0.20230924 Rebuilds AArch64 Packages Due To That Nasty GCC Bug
Microsoft released CBL-Mariner 2.0.20230924 this week as the newest version of their in-house Linux distribution. The driving force behind this release is to get out rebuilt AArch64 packages following the recent GCC security vulnerability that affected Arm 64-bit built software.
What do you hope to see from Microsoft on the Linux front in 2024? Let us know in the forums.
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