Windows Subsystem for Linux

[lath]

The Windows Subsystem for Linux lets developers run GNU/Linux environment -- including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications -- directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a virtual machine.

You can:

• Choose your favorite GNU/Linux distributions from the Windows Store.
• Run common command-line free software such as grep, sed, awk, or other ELF-64 binaries.
• Run Bash shell scripts and GNU/Linux command-line applications including:
  
  • Tools: vim, emacs, tmux
    
  • Languages: Javascript/node.js, Ruby, Python, C/C++, C# & F#, Rust, Go, etc.
    
  • Services: sshd, MySQL, Apache, lighttpd
• Install additional software using own GNU/Linux distribution package manager.
• Invoke Windows applications using a Unix-like command-line shell.
• Invoke GNU/Linux applications on Windows.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about

/Lars

[Claus Henriksen]

Also, even though you will be able to run many popular server applications (e.g. Redis), we do not recommend WSL for hosting production services – Microsoft offers a variety of solutions for running production Linux workloads in Azure, Hyper-V, and Docker.