Hacker News Reader

Marketing.

Windows is based on kernel + NT subsystems, such as console and Win32. There used to be a Unix subsystem too. That's why it's called like that. "Windows subsystem for X" makes sense only with historical context.

It's still not very clear why it started out this way. After all, Subsystem for X, with Windows implied, would have worked too.

Yep. It could have been the other way of course. If it was LSW, I wonder, would people ask the same question? We'll never know, until they decide to do another renaming op.

> Because we don't own the trademark for Linux and so can't lead our product name with it. Try Windows' Subsystem for Linux instead

https://twitter.com/richturn_ms/status/981916165969625088