Other names | SFU |
---|---|
Original author(s) | MKS Inc. (SFU 1.0 / 2.0), Softway Systems, Inc. (SFU 3.0 / 3.5) |
Developer(s) | Microsoft |
Initial release | February 1999 |
Final release | 3.5
/ January 2004 |
Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
Platform | IA-32 and x86-64 |
Predecessor | Microsoft POSIX subsystem |
Successor | Windows Subsystem for Linux |
Type | Compatibility layer |
Website | Windows Services for Unix at the Wayback Machine (archived 2017-08-26) |
Windows Services for UNIX (SFU) is a discontinued software package produced by Microsoft which provided a Unix environment on Windows NT and some of its immediate successor operating-systems.
SFU 1.0 and 2.0 used the MKS Toolkit; starting with SFU 3.0, SFU included the Interix subsystem,[1] which was acquired by Microsoft in 1999 from US-based Softway Systems as part of an asset acquisition.[2] SFU 3.5 was the last release and was available as a free download from Microsoft. Windows Server 2003 R2 included most of the former SFU components (on Disk 2), naming the Interix subsystem component Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA).[3] In Windows Server 2008 and high-end versions of both Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Enterprise and Ultimate), a minimal Interix SUA was included, but most of the other SFU utilities had to be downloaded separately from Microsoft's web site.[1]
The Interix subsystem included in SFU 3.0 and 3.5 and later released as SUA Windows components provided header files and libraries that made it easier to recompile or port Unix applications for use on Windows; they did not make Linux or other Unix binaries (BSD, Solaris, Xenix etc) compatible with Windows binaries. Like the Microsoft POSIX subsystem that Interix replaced, it is best thought of as a distinct Unix-like platform.
It is replaced by Windows Subsystem for Linux in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.