Microsoft catches Mike’s eye with WSL 2, Google gets everyone's attention with their new push for Kotlin, and we get a full eGPU report.

Links:

• QA Feedback from Lewis — I thought I was going to be in a big rush to get out of the basement and up to a developer position, but after listening to the show I really feel like my contribution to this team is going to be important and necessary from the get go.
• Request: Subreddit recommendations — Anyone know any linux and/or programming subs aren't full of mindless circlejerking? Most seem to be afflicted with mindless circlejerking, free software extremism and other indiscretions.
• Feedback on Tools for Docs — One idea is a mind map tool (like Freeplane). This can provide a free-form way to show at a high level how all the parts link together, and attach as much details as needed
• Kotlin is now Google’s preferred language for Android app development — “Android development will become increasingly Kotlin-first,” Google writes in today’s announcement. “Many new Jetpack APIs and features will be offered first in Kotlin. If you’re starting a new project, you should write it in Kotlin; code written in Kotlin often mean much less code for you–less code to type, test, and maintain.”
• Flutter and Chrome OS: Better Together — Flutter initially focused on providing a UI toolkit for building apps for mobile devices, which typically feature touch input and small screens. However, we’ve been building keyboard and mouse support into Flutter since before our 1.0 release last December. And today, we’re pleased to announce that Flutter for Chrome OS is now stronger with scroll wheel support, hover management, and better keyboard event support.
• How Windows and Chrome quietly made 2019 the year of Linux on the desktop — The cleverly named Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, announced at Microsoft’s Build event this week, shakes things up by shipping a full Linux kernel (version 4.19) within Windows itself as a lightweight virtual machine. Doing so should supercharge performance for developers who use the tool.
• Ubuntu 19.04 – Easy-to-use setup script for your EGPU — I have created a script which automatically detects your (E)GPUs and creates the needed X-Server configuration files. You won't have to mess around with finding the correct BUS-IDs and convert them from dec to hex or anything like that, the script takes care of it.
• Linux Action News 105 — RHEL 8 is released, we report from the ground of the big announcement, Microsoft announces WSL 2 with a real Linux kernel at the core, and details on their new open source terminal.