Microsoft has announced the open-sourcing of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) component. This means developers and enthusiasts worldwide can now not only download WSL and build it from source, but also implement their own fixes, propose new features, and actively participate in the subsystem's development. The announcement was made during the Build 2025 developer conference.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) source code is available on GitHub at github.com/microsoft/WSL.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a comprehensive solution consisting of components that operate both in the Windows environment and within the WSL 2 virtual machine. The WSL architecture is structured as follows:

The WSL code can be divided into these key areas:

• Command-line executables: wsl.exe, wslconfig.exe, and wslg.exe, which serve as entry points for interacting with WSL.
• WSL Service (wslservice.exe): Handles launching the WSL virtual machine, Linux distributions, mounting file systems, and other core operations.
• Linux environment binaries that enable WSL functionality, including init (for startup), gns (for networking), localhost (for port forwarding), and others.
• Implementation of the Plan9 server for providing Linux file access from Windows.

Detailed information about each component is available on the official website: https://wsl.dev/.

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