Windows 10 S Won’t Let Users Install Linux Distros

Fresh from the department headed ‘totally expected‘, Microsoft has confirmed that you won’t be able to run Linux distributions on Windows 10 S.

If that statement is confusing it’ll be because you hear that a trio of top Linux distros are coming to the Windows Store (Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE) in the next few months.

But users of Windows 10 S — I’ll let you decide what the S actually stands for — won’t be able to use them.

Those running Microsoft’s pared-back, feature-limited version of Windows 10 for low-end devices 
and cheap-skate OEM
 are only permitted to run applications installed from the Windows Store (which does not stock legacy win32 apps) — but caveats apply.

“There are some apps that are not allowed to run on Windows 10 S, including all command-line apps, shells and Consoles,” Microsoft says.

Linux distros work using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), a feature that lets developers use Bash and other popular command line utilities/features on Windows 10 using a Linux-Compatible kernel interface.

Not that this is the only Windows 10 S restrictions. Users of the OS are not allow set a third-party web browser as default (should they be able to install one in the first place) or change the search engine from Bing.

Microsoft is, however, letting Windows 10 S users “unlock” these “features” — if they’re willing to pay upgrade to Windows 10 Pro,