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Comment by rkagerer | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one who thinks this was named backwards? Like, it should been: Linux Subsystem for Windows, or maybe Windows' Subsystem for Linux

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People commonly say that, but with WSL 1 it was technically quite correct: it’s a Windows Subsystem, for providing Linux. Linux Subsystem for Windows would arguably be slightly inaccurate. The name just feels so strange because Windows hasn’t had many such Subsystems (win32 has essentially been the only one this century).

Under WSL2, the WSL name is no longer technically accurate at all, but it’s what everyone knows it as, and the difference normally doesn’t matter, so they keep it.

It’s because “Windows Subsystem” is a thing. There was also a “Windows Subsystem” in the past that provided POSIX api’s and others.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/reference/subsyst...

After WSL was dropped in favor of the VM approach in WSL2 it’s just a zombie name though I think?

https://twitter.com/richturn_ms/status/1245481405947076610

>Because we cannot name something leading with a trademark owned by someone else. > >Think of it as Windows' Subsystem for Linux. >#ApostrophiesMatter

Just be glad we didn't call it Subsystem For Running POSIX/GNU/Linux Binaries on Windows (SFRPGLBW)

I think of it as "Windows Subsystem for [running] Linux".

The architecture descends from the Windows NT architecture:

   The user mode layer of Windows NT is made up of the "Environment subsystems", which run applications written for many different types of operating systems, and the "Integral subsystem", which operates system-specific functions on behalf of environment subsystems.

Though as other users pointed out, in WSL 2, the name is inaccurate.

Totally agree. Feels like a “windows has to be first” type of thing.

There was a MS employee on twitter the other day (sorry, I forgot who) saying it was because there were legal issues with naming something with a title that has someone else's trademark as the first word.

That completely makes sense in my mind just because my favorite reddit app is called slide for reddit. I think reddit forced everyone to use x for Reddit in their name as opposed to Reddit X.

It was the case with 'reddit is fun' for android, now it's 'rif is fun'

Reddit did exactly that, like five or six years ago. A bunch of apps had to change their names, which is how you end up with apps like "rif is fun for Reddit," where the first part stands for "Reddit is Fun."

Link here to the comment https://twitter.com/richturn_ms/status/1245481405947076610

The naming makes sense when you add ': Windows' Subsystem for Linux

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