Re:The Windows Subsystem for Android now runs Android 13 in ...
by zamadatix on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:47PM
(#34060923)
It really all started with the initial design of NT and then there was just a lull in the 2000s. Early NT had a Win32 subsystem, an OS/2 subsystem, and a POSIX subsystem (well and a security subsystem but that's there for different reasons). When they started WSL (now WSL 1) it used this original subsystem architecture from the 90s just now targeting modern Linux.
Then they found it didn't work as well as people wanted in terms of filesystem performance, low level networking, and PCIe device access so they switched to the more modern integrated hardware virtual machine model which is what WSL2 and WSA use.
Originally Microsoft wanted WSA like functionality (then called Astoria) for Windows 10 mobile but then they found the bridge toolkits to be the easier/better approach and cancelled it until bringing it back for desktop all these years later.
Then they found it didn't work as well as people wanted in terms of filesystem performance, low level networking, and PCIe device access so they switched to the more modern integrated hardware virtual machine model which is what WSL2 and WSA use.
Originally Microsoft wanted WSA like functionality (then called Astoria) for Windows 10 mobile but then they found the bridge toolkits to be the easier/better approach and cancelled it until bringing it back for desktop all these years later.