The systemd inventor Lennart Poettering is leaving the Linux distributor Red Hat and will probably switch to Microsoft. Great progress can be expected for WSL.
Lennart Poettering, developer of important Linux components such as PulseAudio, Avahi and in particular systemd, has left his previous employer Red Hat. There are growing indications that Poettering has switched to Microsoft. There he could be working on systemd for the Windows Subsystem for Linux environment (WSL).
So far there are no official announcements. However, Christian Brauner, for example, a kernel and Linux container developer (LXC, LXD) and himself employed at Microsoft, welcomes Poettering as a member of the same team. Inquiries from heise online about the change of employer have so far not been confirmed by Poettering, Brauner or Microsoft.
Poettering would certainly be an asset for Microsoft. The company provides initial support for Linux software with WSL. However, the project is not particularly advanced and has to contend with many limitations. For example, a user has to be logged in to run software in WSL – which is rather suboptimal for services. Poettering could contribute his know-how here and advance the development of a fully-fledged, independent subsystem.
Poettering has made a significant contribution to the modernization of Linux systems with his projects such as PulseAudio and systemd, but is particularly disputed by traditionalists.
