Bringing Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Windows Subsystem for Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, is now available for WSL. Read about official support options, and how to create your own custom RHEL images for WSL on developers.redhat.com.

The hybrid cloud is an innovation driver, whether pushing the enterprise technology envelope with breakthroughs like generative AI (gen AI) or simply making traditional IT more efficient and responsive through application modernization. Underpinning successful hybrid cloud strategies is choice - of architecture, of cloud provider and of technology stack.

While we see this technology stack starting with Linux, many enterprise IT organizations and developer teams have standardized on Windows environments. For developers that need to build Linux applications on Windows desktops, Microsoft provides the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows for running Linux environments on Windows without having to spin up a traditional virtual machine (VM).

Why is this such a significant move for enterprise IT?

For developers who need to build Linux apps on a Windows system but then deploy on a RHEL environment, being able to use the same RHEL via WSL as they would for production can be a significant time- and resource-saver. This is the same RHEL that powers some of the world’s largest enterprises, the same RHEL that fuels the Fortune 500 and the same RHEL driving supercomputing advancements.

Read more on the Microsoft blog and on developers.redhat.com.