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It's not a GPL problem. It's a GPLv3 problem. Most likely the anti-tivoization clause. Linux, like the old version of Bash that Apple is shipping, is licensed under GPL v2.

I suspect Microsoft is also very careful to make sure they don't ship any GPL v3 components with Windows itself, even when they're available via separate download, because they want to be able to ship locked down devices.

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That still doesn’t answer how MS is able to ship an entire Linux OS which obviously contains the newest versions of bash and many other binaries without apparently having licensing issues that Apple does.

They don't ship it though. The Linux subsystem for Windows is a different component. It's an image you download and run (might be community maintained too; not sure).

Locked down devices don't get to use WSL in the first place.

And I don't see what the problem is. Okay, so they'd have to let you replace the bash binary. That doesn't give you any abilities you don't already have.

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