Kazinsal wrote:
They re-engineered an entire section of their kernel solely to support the microcontainer platform it runs on.
According to
wikipedia they had plans to create Android middleware for Windows Mobile, which probably started the kernel reorganization already. From which WSL remained as a byproduct.
Kazinsal wrote:
And I know there are people in the Windows team who use it in their day to day.
All right, but you yourself stated that Linux VMs offer viable (if not better) alternative for most tasks. WSL and similar environments address specific needs that are probably not considered high priority for the Windows market. And the Windows teams have lived and worked without the technology for a long time, so it must not have been such a vital necessity. In that sense, I doubt that the company would go out of its way to support it. Besides, if the idea proves unproductive for MS's marketing goals, they can discontinue WSL or leave the public with outdated variant and still maintain it internally, for example.
Kazinsal wrote:
I suspect it'll be around for a very long time.
May be. Who knows. Mind you, I don't dislike the company nearly as much as some folk. I favor their OS's design in some ways (and not in others). But as I said, I don't trust their consistency.