Pengwin

The first Linux® distribution optimized for WSL. Based on Debian®. From open-source software startup Whitewater Foundry. Formerly WLinux.

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See the Pengwin blog and @PengwinLinux for up-to-date news about Pengwin.

If you are a commercial, government, or educational institution, you may like to check out our enterprise-focused distribution, Pengwin Enterprise.

Features

• Pengwin is a Linux environment for Windows 10 built on open-source technology conceived by Microsoft Research and the Linux ecosystem curated by the Debian project.
• Pengwin is also the first Linux distribution pre-configured and optimized to run specifically on Windows® Subsystem for Linux, a Microsoft-supported feature of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.
• Pengwin includes wslu, a set of useful open-source utilities for interacting between WSL and Windows 10.
• A custom Pengwin-setup tool, accessible via $ pengwin-setup allows new Pengwin users to get started on Linux immediately:
  • Change language and keyboard settings.
  • Select optional shells: csh, zsh (with oh-my-zsh), and fish (with oh-my-fish).
  • Choose text editors: emacs, neovim, and Visual Studio Code.
  • Unpack your favorite development environment NodeJS (with n, npm, and/or yarn), Python 3.7 (with pip), Ruby (via rbenv), Rust (via rustup installer) and Go.
  • Manage your Microsoft Windows and Azure deployments with PowerShell and azure-cli, command line tools for Azure.
  • Enable/disable Windows Explorer shell integration.
  • Configure experimental GUI settings, including a Windows 10 theme for your Linux applications, HiDPI support and international input methods.
  • Create a secure bridge to Docker running on Windows.
• Support for many Linux graphical applications with no need to configure display or libGL in Pengwin. (Requires a Windows-based X server, such as X410.)
• Install over 27,790 open source packages via the apt package management system from the expansive Debian repositories and any third-party Debian-compatible repositories from outside projects.
• Pengwin provides faster patching for WSL-specific bugs than any upstream Linux distro available on WSL.
• New features are actively developed based on community input. Learn how you can earn paid grants improving Pengwin.

Requirements

• Windows 10
  • Minimum 1709/16299
  • Recommended 1809/17763
• Windows Subsystem for Linux Enabled
  • To enable Windows Subsystem for Linux open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Updates

To check for updates, use the apt package management system.

1. Check for the latest updates: $ sudo apt-get update
2. Apply the latest updates: $ sudo apt-get upgrade

Versioning

Pengwin is rolling release. Debian packages, pengwin-base, and pengwin-setup receive ongoing updates. Version numbers are used to track long-term progress on bugs and features, e.g. 1.2, and new versions are released every 2-3 months. New builds are regularly built and uploaded to the Store. The third build uploaded during 1.2.x window will be marked 1.2.3.

To check your version of pengwin-setup: $ apt-cache policy pengwin-setup

To check your verison of pengwin-base: $ apt-cache policy pengwin-base

Obtaining Support

Purchases of Pengwin in the Microsoft Store pay for a team of open source indie developers to add new features, test and release builds, evaluate WSL-related CVEs, and provide user support. User support is provided on a best effort basis. Most issues can be resolved by following the steps below.

• First, search for your issue on the Pengwin Issues page here.
• Next, search for your issue on the general WSL Issues page here.
• Then consult the official Troubleshooting Windows Subsystem for Linux documentation from Microsoft.
• Finally, if you are still unable to resolve your issue, please submit a bug report here and we will do our best to help you. We usually respond to most Issues within a few hours. Thank you for your patience.

Additional Pengwin Documentation

• LICENSE.md
• BUILDING.md
• PRIVACY.md
• ROADMAP.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md

Related Pages

• Awesome Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Awesome UNIX
• wslu

Credits

Core Team

• Carlos Rafael Ramirez
• Javier David Santos
• José Alejandro Carrizo

Contributors

• Andrew Fehr
• Kim Bradley
• B. Branchard
• haodeon
• Nick Clarke
• laventillelion
• Patrick Wu

Founder

• Hayden Barnes

Testing/QA

• Jack Mangano
• Nuno do Carmo
• Jeremy Sinclair
• Ricardo Echavarria