Microsoft is opening up its Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) to all developers in Windows 10. The company already worked with developers of some of the world’s most popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Debian to make them readily available from the Microsoft Store.

And now, it’s releasing a new open-source reference project that lets almost anyone build their own Linux distro for WSL. Using the open-source distribution launcher, anyone can sideload their custom Linux distro into their machine and run it like a regular Linux environment within Windows 10. And if developers of these Linux distros want to take things a step further, they can get in touch with Microsoft and publish their custom-built distro to the Microsoft Store. These distros run as regular Universal Windows Platform applications, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble building them for the WSL if you are already familiar with custom Linux distros.

“We know that many Linux distros rely entirely on open source software, so we would like to bring WSL closer to the OSS community. We hope open sourcing this project will help increase community engagement and bring more of your favorite distros to the Microsoft Store,” Microsoft’s Tara Raj said in a blog post.

Developers interested in building their own Linux distros for the WSL can find the open-source distribution launcher on GitHub here.

Tagged with Linux, Windows Subsytem for Linux, WSL