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Ubuntu now available for download in the Windows Store

Tux fans have all the reason to cheer with the availability of Linux distros directly from the Windows Store. (Source: MSPoweruser)
Tux fans have all the reason to cheer with the availability of Linux distros directly from the Windows Store. (Source: MSPoweruser)
Insiders running the latest Windows Insider Preview builds can now get a taste of a native Ubuntu experience directly from the Windows Store and play around with popular Linux developer tools without the hassle of managing multi-boot setups.

Canonical has now made Ubuntu (version 16.04 LTS) available for direct download from the Windows Store. PCs running the latest Insider Preview build of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Build 16190 or higher) can download Ubuntu and take some of its command line utilities for a test drive. The only prerequisite is that the optional Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature needs to be turned on from the "Turn Windows Features on or off" dialog box in the Control Panel. According to the Store listing, the Ubuntu installation comes with the Ubuntu Terminal along with a host of Ubuntu command line utilities such as bashsshgitapt, and dpkg. 

The initial release of WSL on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update allowed users to natively run the Bash shell within Windows. This release of Ubuntu follows in the steps of openSUSE Leap 42 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, which were released last week in the Windows Store. Hot on the heels of SUSE and Canonical is Fedora, which is expected to hit the Store soon. Servicing of Linux distros through the Windows Store has tangible benefits — the most important ones being faster downloads and quicker updates directly from the Store.

WSL has proven to be a very handy tool for developers who often multi-boot between Linux and Windows, or run a Linux Virtual Machine for compiling and debugging. WSL has been shaping up well with each update and the latest version allows not only installation of multiple distros but also enables them to run side-by-side. You can download Ubuntu for WSL from here.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2017 07 > Ubuntu now available for download in the Windows Store
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2017-07-11 (Update: 2017-07-11)