New GPU and GUI Features Announced for WSL at Build
New GPU and GUI features announced for WSL at Build | Ubuntu

Microsoft Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, is taking place virtually May 19-20. Ubuntu will be featured throughout the event, in announcements of new WSL features, demos of cloud-native development on Microsoft Azure, and by presenters using Ubuntu desktop with native Microsoft applications like Teams, Code, and Edge:



GPU and GUI application support
In an address by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the company announced new features coming to WSL 2. WSL 2 is the latest version of Windows Subsystem for Linux powered by a real Linux kernel in a lightweight virtual machine. These new features will unlock powerful workflows for users of Ubuntu on WSL:
Nvidia CUDA and DirectML support for GPU accelerated applications and development tools, such as Kubeflow on microk8s.Linux GUI application support enabling native and cross-platform development with tools such as GNOME Builder, KDevelop, and Emacs. 
From the DirectX Developer Blog:



WSL 2 is currently available in Windows Insiders builds. WSL 2 will be generally available in Windows 10 version 2004, which is anticipated in the next few weeks. GPU support is expected to be available in Windows Insiders builds in a few months. A timeline for Linux GUI application support is expected later this year.
microk8s and LXD on WSL 2
A Kubernetes development environment is available today on Ubuntu on WSL 2 using microk8s. A presentation from Canonical on using microk8s on WSL 2 will go live on May 22. You can sign up to be notified or subscribe to Celebrate Ubuntu on YouTube.
Ubuntu on WSL 2 can also power LXD-based container workflows on Windows. Here is a tutorial from WSLConf on using LXD on WSL 2.



LXD 4.0 recently introduced VM support which can be used after Microsoft lands nested virtualization support in WSL 2 later this year. 
See all of the videos from WSLConf on our YouTube Channel.
Additional new features
Additional features coming to WSL announced by Microsoft at Build 2020 include: 
An easier way to install WSL on any version of Windows using wsl.exe –install and later the ability to specify a specific distribution and version, such as Ubuntu 20.04.WSL 2 will now become the default when installing WSL for the first time.
Learn more about Ubuntu on WSL 2
More details on the new WSL 2 features can be found in on the Windows Command Line blog.More details on the GPU support is available on the DirectX Developer Blog.Microsoft also announced Windows Terminal, the highly customizable GPU-accelerated terminal for Ubuntu on WSL, has reached 1.0.Sign up to be notified about the forthcoming microk8s on WSL presentation or subscribe to our YouTube channel.Read more about Ubuntu on WSL at ubuntu.com/wsl.
