Linux developers just got a great and unexpected news from Microsoft. Starting this summer, Linux command lines are coming to Windows 10. The announcement was made yesterday, March, the 30th, at Microsoft’s Build 2016 Conference. The integration of the Bash command line shell and support for Ubuntu Linux binaries will come along this summer with Windows 10’s Anniversary Update.

“The Bash shell is coming to Windows. Yes, the real Bash is coming to Windows. This is not a virtual machine. This is not cross-compiled tools. This is native. We’ve partnered with Canonical to offer this great experience, which you’ll be able to download right from the Windows Store,” explained keynote Kevin Gallo from Microsoft.

The announcement that Linux command lines are coming to Windows 10 was received with and enthusiasm by the developers present at the Build 2016 Conference, as it came as a surprise for everyone.  Until now, the developers have been using third-party tools for writing Linux command lines in Windows. But the partnership between Microsoft and Canonical should make their lives easier. This news is important for developers who want to use command-line tools while creating apps, for power users who uses until now third-party tools (like Cygwin) or a virtual machine will. From now, they will be able to write their .sh Bash scripts on Windows, as well.

“This is brilliant for developers that use a diverse set of tools like me. This is a genuine Ubuntu image on top of Windows with all the Linux tools I use’, wrote Microsoft’s Scott Hanselman on a blog post explaining his company’s move.

Below, you can watch an in-depth video covering Bash on Windows.

Bash (Bourne Again SHell) has been for a long time a standard on OS X and many Linux systems. Yet, the default terminal for developers on Windows was Microsoft’s own PowerShell.

A few years ago the idea of Microsoft associating with another operating system, like Linux, was unthinkable. As we know, Linux-Microsoft is an all time rival couple. So, what made Microsoft reconsider this approach, what’s behind this move? Microsoft wants to target all the developers – not just the ones that are using its platforms and systems, so as the Linux developers won’t need to install Linux on their machines. And adding Linux command lines to Windows 10 is not the only thing towards a partnership. Now Microsoft offers support for Linux on Azure and has plans to bring SQL Server to Linux in the near future.  So, it is worth keeping an eye on Microsoft’s moves on Linux see what comes next.