"That command is a classic example of a fork bomb.

What it does

When executed in a POSIX-compliant shell (like Bash), this command causes the system to rapidly consume all available resources by creating an exponential number of processes until the system crashes or becomes completely unresponsive.

Breakdown of the syntax

Here is how that cryptic string is interpreted by the shell:

:(): This defines a function named :.

{ ... }: This defines the body of the function.

:|:: This calls the function : and pipes its output to another instance of the function :.

&: This puts the function call into the background, so the parent process doesn't wait for it to finish.

;: This terminates the function definition.

:: This final character executes the function for the first time, triggering the cycle.

Essentially, the function calls itself twice, and because it runs in the background, each call continues to spawn more copies of itself uncontrollably.

Important Warning

Do not run this command on your computer.

If you execute this, your system will likely become unresponsive, requiring a hard reboot to clear the process table and recover. On many modern Linux distributions, there are default security limits (ulimit) in place that prevent a single user from spawning enough processes to crash the entire system, but it is still highly inadvisable to test it."

cat: cannot open food

Your mistake is trying to read the article rather than just the summary or even just the headline. Or, per decades-old slashdot tradition, misreading any, all, or none of the above and posting to demonstrate such.

@SlashbotAgent:

I can’t see why anyone but Microsoft would use this for production, and then not for any real reason. I assume the software development and maintenance effort is relatively minor.

Other than things like Windows preference and organizations populated by Windows-only administrators, the only use case I can see for containerizing Linux under Windows would be for environments that want or need Linux functionality beyond what WSL can provide (I’m not sure what that would be) but are constrained by Windows legacies. I agree with other commenters that hosting those Windows applications in Windows containers under Linux would be preferable to using WSL to host Linux under Windows. Could things such as Active Directory present issues on Linux with Windows only in containers?

After Solaris and some other platforms, I did .NET development with Visual Studio for about 20 years. I tried to stick with builds of Windows that provided a more traditional (Windows 3.1/XP/7) environment, skipping disasters like Vista and sometimes using the server versions. There was a time when Windows was a relatively pleasant and familiar environment for me. Other than WSL, I can’t think of much good about Windows since Windows 7. I am not sure whether Microsoft realizes it or it could help others do the same, but WSL and specifically Windows Terminal assisted in my transition to Linux on the desktop, though I don’t even develop software anymore.

In summary, I wouldn’t use WSL for production beyond my own desktop.

> Why not develop for Windows native?

I assume that most people development is for browser clients and native apps, neither of which provides a native development environment. I think that developer tooling on Linux may have advantages over Windows, and of course Linux has advantages as a server.

Makes me think of the despair.com poster about meetings, "none of us is as dumb as all of us."

Your message has touched me deeply.

I think he was actually more busy managing the exfiltration of data and getting rid of people and structures that could work against his interests.

Society as we know it couldn't exist without alcohol and masturbation. Men would kill everything.

Isn't the Trump bible just a bad copy of the script to Pulp Fiction?

I thought it was because they would "paint it black".

OpenAI will be the cannery in the columbine of the AI bobble pooping.

Mention of Microsoft Works? So there *was* another user.

I would add that there are levels such as concentrated wealth above and outside nation states and benefiting from swarm theory on aligned interests without explicit cooperation, but what would that have to do with whether "AI" is useful at identifying code defects...

> it's unlikely what you're reading hasn't been gamed to suit a particular company

Or politician, or political party, or other group of people whose interests generally don't match mine. I completely agree; this has been my assumption from the start, and certainly borne out by evidence over time. Unfortunately, most consumers are not very media-savvy, and advertisement systems are increasingly deceptive. Shaping audience perspectives must be one of the primary purposes of any vendor in the LLM space, which would have a direct result on revenue and profitability.

In the end, the US government may be the largest AI customer.