I've been watching the whole Bash on Windows thing since it launched and it blows my mind in almost every possible way, the project has all the potential to make Windows a viable programming environment, specially for PHP and Ruby folks, which need to run Apache and all that stuff.

It won't replace a full Linux install, but it might be enough for most use cases (it doesn't run X yet, for example). So virtual machines aren't exactly going to be replaced by Bash on Windows.

But for people who buy Macs just because it is a Unix machine that runs Photoshop, and use Homebrew and Macports, which let's be clear apt-get wins hands-down, Bash on Windows is a strong alternative for these types of users.

I own a Macbook Air 2011, Apple prices skyrocketed in Brazil and for me to pay that price on a machine that has soldered RAM, almost no ports, having to buy expensive adapters, to use a shitty package manager with an OS that makes me dual-boot with Windows/Linux for some things, I am definitely considering a Lenovo or Dell machine with Windows for my next development environment.

Of course, not all things are perfect, while the project seems to be moving at an awesome pace and the future is bright, it is still in Beta, and lots of things are broken for now, if it becomes as stable as it should be, it will be big. I am eagerly waiting for the stable version of it.