If you google there are many reasonable reasons for it. But the most straight forward is:

> Because we cannot name something leading with a trademark owned by someone else.

https://xcancel.com/richturn_ms/status/1245481405947076610?s...

The core of the software is a subsystem, specifically a Windows subsystem; you're not running this subsystem on macOS or FreeBSD.

The "for Linux" is added because it's a subsystem for Linux applications (originally not leveraging a VM).

Microsoft also had the "Microsoft POSIX subsystem" (1993) and "Windows Services for UNIX" (1999) which were built on the "Subsystem for Unix-based Applications" (rather than "Unix-based Application Subsystem"). That chain of subsystems died at the end of Windows 8, though.

There are many reasons not to put "Linux" in front, but the naming is consistent with Microsoft's naming inconsistencies. It's not the first time they used "subsystem for" and it's not the first time they used "Windows x for y" either.

The naming is ambiguous, you could interpret the Windows subsystem for Linux as a subsystem of Linux (if it had such a thing) that runs Windows, or as a Windows subsystem for use with Linux. Swapping the order doesn't change that.

In other languages, the difference would be clearer.

My personal experience with our legal department on naming is that if your product name includes someone else's trademark, you have to say "Our Thing for Their Thing", exactly like that. I was involved in a product that did this, and we came up with some better names, but legal said no, it must be named with "for Their Thing" at the end. Those were the magic words so we don't get sued, and indeed, we weren't sued. Our legal was non-technical and never heard of WSL; they came to this conclusion independently.

The name we shipped was even worse than Windows Subsystem for Linux, honestly. At least Microsoft spent some time on it.

"Windows subsystem" was an existing term of art on the NT architecture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture

It’s a sub-system of Windows that is used for Linux.

It can work either way though.

I always have the same problem myself. Same as I had with version naming of old programs like "Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0" instead of the easier "Microsoft Word 2.0 for Windows".

Other people already answered but windows was just another personality on the original idea that cutler had for WNT. It just took a while for it to get implemented as a linux

To reciprocate the naming of Wine, maybe it could have been named Line. Also, both have this positive clang, being associated with "having a good time".

Windows' subsystem for Linux

(Windows 9x) (Subsystem for Linux)

It's a dominance thing. Classic abuser behaviour.

Yeah, you'd think from this that it is running Linux on Windows 9x.

Microsoft names of products turn around likes, e.g.

OpenOffice XML [1] -> Office Open XML [2]

[1] https://www.openoffice.org/xml/general.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML