Microsoft announced the lighter Windows 10 S version to battle the Google ChromeOS. With the Windows 10 S, Microsoft wants to appeal to students and the education sector in general. That being said this has also given rise to yet another quintessential question, will the Windows 10 S support Linux Distros?
Windows 10 S will not support Linux
Why is this an important question is that most of the students especially the ones who are learning to code prefer Linux over the Windows ecosystem or in most of the cases they use a Windows+Linux on the same machine using the dual boot option. However it’s not the same with the Windows 10 S, Microsoft has cleared the air and has said that the Windows 10 S will not support Linux and will also not allow users to dual boot.
Just because an ‘app’ comes from the Windows Store does NOT automatically mean that it’s safe and suitable for running in Windows 10 S. There are some apps that are not allowed to run on Windows 10 S, including all command-line apps, shells and Consoles- Microsoft senior program manager Rich Turner.
The Windows 10 S runs applications in sandboxed environment which mean that users can only install apps from the Windows app store and cannot sideload the apps using the executable files. This limitation is also expected to raise its ugly head when developers want to run their own programs by executing the program files. Yet another limitation is that Google Chrome is not yet supported on Windows 10 S since the Chrome is not on Windows store yet.
Windows 10 S currently ships with the new Microsoft Surface laptop and will also be bundled along with laptops from OEM’s including Acer, Toshiba and others. The Windows S laptops will start at $189 and will be faster and agiler than the actual Windows 10. That being said one can still upgrade to Windows 10 Pro by paying a premium and then install the Linux but that defeats the very purpose of running Windows 10 S, Right?
