Microsoft covered a lot of topics during the first day of its Build 2016 development conference, but one news item generated more developer interest than all the others: Bash and Ubuntu are coming to Windows. This isn’t just Linux running in a VM on Windows?the company said that Windows 10 is getting native support for the Bash Unix shell running on Ubuntu, and Bash will even be available for download from the Windows store. That means developers will be able to run a variety of open source command-line tools from Windows.
Throughout his keynote address, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized a concept he called “Conversations as a Platform.” He said, “It is about taking the power of human language and applying it more pervasively to all of our computing?and to infuse into our computing and our computers, intelligence about us and our context. By doing so, we think this can have as profound an impact as the previous platform shifts have had?whether it be GUI, whether it be the Web or touch or mobile.”
Other noteworthy announcements included the Cortana Intelligence Suite, the Skype Bot Platform and other improvements for Cortana and the Azure cloud computing service.
