Microsoft Made More Linux / Open-Source Announcements In 2019 From exFAT To WSL2

Under the continued guidance of Satya Nadella, Microsoft made more interesting open-source / Linux moves in 2019 most notably with allowing exFAT support to be introduced into the mainline Linux kernel and also introducing Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

With the end of 2019 quickly coming upon us, here is a look back as part of our year-end recaps in all the major Microsoft open-source/Linux related announcements this calendar year.

- Most significant this year was Microsoft finally becoming open to allowing exFAT file-system support in the Linux kernel and publishing the exFAT specification. In Linux 5.4 an initial exFAT driver was merged based on earlier Samsung code and this exFAT driver continues to be improved upon.

- Microsoft open-sourced their C++ standard library.

- Announcing Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) as a more Hyper-V VM-based approach to Windows Subsystem for Linux that allows better I/O performance but with other trade-offs. Both WSL and WSL2 continue to be worked on by Microsoft moving into 2020.

- Microsoft confirming their plans to release their new Edge web browser for Linux in the new year.

- Other WSL2 improvements like memory reclamation and localhost access.

- Microsoft Teams for Linux debuting in public preview form right now.

- Microsoft contributing the Linux kernel support to finally allow Linux VMs to hibernate under Hyper-V.

- The means to have Linux commands seamlessly integrated within PowerShell.

- .NET Core 3.0 released with continued Linux support.

- A new open-source font designed for terminals and code editors.

- Microsoft announced DTrace for Windows.

For those wanting to relive previous years, see the Microsoft 2018 Linux/open-source highlights and their 2017 milestones.