No, Linux is no longer cancer! Almost all the popular Linux distribution is now available on the Windows store and credit should be given to Microsoft for making this a reality. It is not surprising to see Microsoft embracing Linux given how much they are invested in open source. Microsoft even has an operating system called Azure Sphere that uses the Linux kernel and not Windows.
You can now run Linux on your Windows 10 PC natively, which is not only sounds great on paper, the actual experience is fantastic and I doubt it can get any better. To run Linux on your PC, you need to do some setup or I should say you need to tell your PC that you want to run Linux on top of Windows. There are basically two ways to make your PC Linux-ready. In this tutorials, I will share both hard and easy way.
Please note that when we say run Linux natively, we mean the terminal and not the distribution like the Ubuntu or Kali. Windows Subsystem for Linux just enables your Windows 10 PC to run Linux terminal natively, you won’t be able to run the entire operating system by the following method.
The Easy Way
The easiest way to make your Windows 10 PC Linux-ready, you need to head over to the Control Panel settings. To do that just type ‘Control Panel’ and open it. Then you need to click on programs and then on ‘Turn Windows features on or off‘. A new Window will pop up with a list, you need to go to the bottom and look for ‘Windows Subsystem for Linux‘, once you find it, do tick the box right beside it and click on OK. This will look for the necessary files on the web and install them automatically. Once it finishes, it will ask you to restart your PC. You need to restart your PC. When the process gets completed you need to download the Linux distribution of your Choice from the Microsoft Store. After finishing the Installation you need to launch the Linux distribution which you have the just downloaded. This will take a few minutes to install. Now you don’t need to do anything else, just let your PC do its job.
The Hard Way
The hard way is not that hard actually, in fact, someone might consider this as the easiest way. Whatever that is, let me tell the way. First, you need to type ‘Power Shell’ on Windows Search then you need to run this as an Administrator. Type/copy paste the following command:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
Now you need to sit back and let your PC do its work. Once done you will have a prompt, asking you to restart your computer. Do restart your computer and now the process is all the same as how it was mentioned in The Easy Way.
Reminder: In case you did not notice, enabling Windows Subsystem for Linux involves searching the web and downloading the required files(It is an automatic process where you don’t have to do anything as we mentioned above). This means you need to have a valid Internet connection to enable it.
