Microsoft’s first WSLConf Linux Conference is being held this week, March 10 – 11, 2020. Originally, it was going to be an onsite event at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. However, with the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, Microsoft has turned their first Linux conference into a virtual event. If you are interested in “attending”, you can do so virtually and registration is still open and free! Also, if you are not able to attend, recordings of the sessions will be made available afterwards.

In fact, the in-person WSLConf event was originally sold out! Now, with the WSLConf going virtual only, there doesn’t look to be any limit on the number of attendees. If you’re interested in attending Microsoft’s first Linux Conference, you’ll want to register immediately just in case there is limited capacity!

WSLConf is Virtual Only

The announcement from Microsoft that the WSLConf Linux conference would be virtual only was made March 3, 2020. Here’s the full announcement from Microsoft about this change:

Due to the rapidly evolving situation within the Seattle area and Washington state, we have decided to turn WSLConf into a virtual event, with the welfare of all attendees, speakers and employees being our primary concern. 

We will be converting our existing live streaming setup into a fully remote, interactive experience. Details of how to join the virtual event will be provided to all registered attendees shortly and recordings will become available post-event for those not able to join live. For those that were not able to attend originally, it is still possible to register for the virtual event.

Due to the location of some speakers, we will be updating the agenda and communicating that shortly. However, we will endeavor to ensure as many as the sessions go ahead with opportunities to interact live with the presenters where possible.

We will look for another opportunity to gather the WSL community in-person once the situation becomes clearer. In the meantime, thank you for your understanding and ongoing enthusiasm for WSL and our community. We hope you enjoy and will benefit from WSLConf as a virtual event. 

Microsoft via wslconf.dev

In light of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic this is a really thoughtful change. In addition to keeping the welfare of the Microsoft employees in mind, it also helps keep all presenters and attendees safe. As I’m sure you already know, the largest outbreak within the Unites States is in the Seattle, Washington area.

WSLConf Sessions

Whether you attend the WSLConf virtually, or you catch the session recordings afterwards, there are many great sessions on the agenda for this conference. You can view a list of the sessions in the WSLConf Attendee Packet available for download, and here are a few notable sessions I’d like to call out:

• Welcome Remarks – Hayden Barnes and Sohini Roy, Canonical
• WSL Team Update – Craig Loewen, Microsoft
• New Windows Terminal Team Update – Kayla Cinnamon, Microsoft
• WSL Distro Updates – Pengwin, Kali, and Ubuntu
• How We Use WSL at Kali – Steev Klimaszewski and Jim O’Gorman, Offensive Security
• Inside Docker Desktop with WSL 2 – Simon Feroquel, Docker
• Scripting with WSL Interoperability: Tips & Tricks – Patrick Wu, wslutilities
• WSL on ARM – Edward Vielmetti, Packet
• C++ Cross-Platform Development with Visual Studio and WSL – Erika Sweet, Microsoft
• microk8s on WSL – Nuno Do Carmo, Ferring Pharmaceuticals
• Access the world… getting at files from the smallest devices to the Cloud and Samba from Linux using SMB3 – Steve French
• Avoiding Default Passwords and Secrets Breaches using WSL2 and Open Source – Dave Dittrich
• WSL2 Deep Dive, History, and Q&A – Ben Hillis and Craig Loewen, Microsoft
• Developing Web Apps with WSL – Joshua Martin, Cerebrum Corp
• Ansible DevOps on WSL – Aaron Kulbe, Long View Bits
• Investigating WSL Endpoints – Asif Matadar, Tanium
• Unleash your IoT development tools with WSL – Francesco Valerio Buccoli, Microsoft, Marco Dal Pino, Project SpA
• PowerShell 7 – Joey Aiello, Microsoft
• Go on WSL: Getting up and running with Kubernetes on WSL2 – Dax McDonald, Rancher Labs
• Cross-platform GUI applications with JetBrains Tools on WSL – Carlos Ramirez, Pengwin
• Sharing and growing your OSS Project on Live Streaming Platforms – Michael Crump, Microsoft
• Closing Remarks – Hayen Barnes and Sohini Roy, Canonical

Register to Attend for FREE!

If you are interested in attending the Microsoft WSLConf Linux conference virtually, you can find information on how to register over on https://www.wslconf.dev/. With the conference being virtual only, you wont be missing anything by attending virtually, as compared to in person as that is not an option anymore. Also, Microsoft has stated the session recordings will be made available afterwards, so you can catch the sessions later on as well.

I can wait to see these great sessions for the WSLConf linux conference from Microsoft!

P.S. It never gets old saying some form of the phrase “Microsoft Linux Conference”. 🙂

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