Microsoft Unveils New Windows Terminal & Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Microsoft has announced a string of new features and services that are focused on developers at its annual Build 2019 Developer Conference. It goes without saying that Windows 10 operating system got its share of attention and the company announced some interesting features for developers who use Windows as their development platform.

Starting with a new terminal for Windows 10 operating system, the company has launched a new terminal program called Windows Terminal. This modern developer tool for Windows will ship with shortcuts, tabs, and tear away windows, GPU-accelerated text rending — all these are much-demanded features and I’m sure developers are going to love them.

Windows Terminal will also support themes and extensions to combine the best of looks and efficiency. Additionally, it’ll also bring along full Unicode support, including East Asian fonts.

Ultimately, Microsoft has made the new Windows Terminal the default command line application for Command Prompt, PowerShell as well as Windows Subsystem for Linux users.

A preview of the new Terminal is now available for testing.

Moving on to the world of Linux! After launching the first version of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in 2016 and continuously improving it with each Windows 10 Preview release, the company is now here with WSL 2.

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is based on Linux 4.19 LTS kernel. Microsoft is using the same kernel for WSL 2 that it uses for Azure. As a result, the company claims to reduce Linux boot time and RAM usage.

The other major features of WSL 2 are better filesystem performance, native Docker support, etc.

The new WSL will be made available later this year.