This article is more than 1 year old

Ubuntu Linux now on Windows Store (for Insiders)

What fell sorcery is this?

Microsoft finally confirmed that Hell has indeed frozen over – Ubuntu is at long last available from the Windows Store.

Canonical's Linux distro is now available for installation on Windows Store on Insider build 16215 and higher. Windows 10 already supports Ubuntu via the Windows Subsystem for Linux, rolled out in the Creators Update earlier this year.

Microsoft says the advantages of installing the Windows Store version of Ubuntu are more reliable and faster downloads as well as support for installing and running different distros side by side. For example, if you already have a legacy Ubuntu distro installed, your Windows Store downloaded version will run "alongside but isolated" from it.

You'll also be able to launch 'Store-delivered distros via the command-line.

The downloading is nippier because of the Windows Store's block-based downloading scheme, Redmond claims.

Microsoft originally announced it was bringing Ubuntu to the Windows Store back in May.

As previously reported, it's also working on bringing over the SUSE and Fedora Linux distros, which should arrive in the next couple of weeks. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like