WSL 2.4.4: Install Red Hat directly from the Windows command line
RHEL will be an official distribution in the Windows subsystem for Linux. Administrators can create individualized Linux systems without Windows code.
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Red Hat Enterprise Linux will be released as an official distribution in the Windows subsystem for Linux in the upcoming version 2.4.4. This includes RHEL in the WSL sources, which users can install directly from the command line. In the coming months, Red Hat will release an image for the new tar-based WSL distribution architecture.
With the new distribution architecture, individualized WSL distributions can be created without writing Windows code. Administrators can then distribute such distributions in their organizations via a file or network share. They are then available for users to install on their end devices. Previously, it was necessary to make the configurations as code and distribute the distribution as an appx package via the Microsoft Store. The latter remains an option.
New zero-trust functions for WSL
The new WSL version also offers integrations for Intune and Entra ID. With Intune in WSL, administrators receive an overview of the Linux distributions and versions used in the organization and can control them. The WSL's link to Entra ID protects Entra tokens from being transmitted over the network and establishes a connection that allows Linux processes to access the Windows authentication of the host system.
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There is a new welcome screen for inexperienced WSL users. At the first start, a second window with information on the key functions appears in addition to the command line. The menu items have short explanations and links to documentation.
The new features of WSL can be found in Microsoft's Dev Blog. The pre-release of version 2.4.4 is available on GitHub.
(sfe)
