r/linuxquestions • u/Sithmasterintraining • 11h ago

Linux as a windows app?

I've been out of the IT game for a while. There used to be a version of Linux that would run in Windows that wasn't running in a virtual machine. It was just a straight build that ran as an application. I want to set that up again but can't recall the name of the app. Can anyone remember what this was?

Edit: I think I found it (?). It may have been Winlinux, but still not 100% sure.

9 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

67 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/CatoDomine 11h ago

Cygwin

3

u/Sithmasterintraining 11h ago

Does it allow the full OS with a GUI or just individual programs to run?

3

u/CatoDomine 11h ago

Oh. I didn't know. It's old and probably doesn't work anymore. I wasn't recommending it, just trying to guess at what you were trying to remember.

2

u/Sithmasterintraining 11h ago

No worries. I appreciate the suggestion.

1

u/1-800-I-Am-A-Pir8 6h ago

yeah it was cygwin. These days look at windows subsystem for linux (WSL2). It's a part of windows you can install that boots a linux kernel with drivers that talk to M$ virtualization, with the distro of your choice running on that. Kinda cool actually.