I don’t understand the pointless hate over wsl. Sure, it doesn’t replace Linux. It also doesn’t have to… Just having access to basic nix functionality from a windows desktop is still a useful feature. It makes stuff like putty mostly obsolete. It let’s windows users unpack tarballs without 7zip. It let’s developers play video games while “compiling”. It’s just an all-around convenient tool to have.
Maybe Microsoft wanted it to replace the Linux desktop, but since when has anyone really cared about what Microsoft wanted :P
Yeah, I don’t see what the big deal is. I won’t be switching from Windows anytime soon, for various reasons, but I very much appreciate being able to have access to a local linux environment without having to dual boot.
While technically different (VM vs compatibility layer), WSL and Wine fill the same role. I have yet to see lots of people bashing Wine for being incomplete and imperfect.
Yeah, I can’t emphasize enough how it can’t replace Linux. And it doesn’t even always work that well for stuff that you’d expect to be able to work there.
I use Windows for my mostly-for-gaming desktop and because I’m very lazy with dual booting, I usually just use WSL if I wanna do some small thing. Or even some not so small thing. I tried to get stable diffusion working using it. I strongly dislike using the windows command line (I do all my professional dev on Linux and it’s what I’m most comfortable with), so I tried to use the Linux instructions with WSL. Did not go well. Wasted more time than I should have trying to make it work before I just gave up on that idea.
Not the first time I hit some weird WSL incompatibility either. I really should know better.
I spend like 80% of my work day in WSL. Using a Linux image that 100% matches the production environment, docker and k8s integration, and using VScode easily with WSL.
The big thing that makes is work is all I need is a command line.
Same, I have completely integrate WSL into my workflow. I use devcontainers with VScode and docker in WSL directly skipping docker in windows. It’s great
Yes, with WSL2, it’s implemented as a VM on hyper-v. But, that should be treated as an implementation detail, it’s a very light VM, compared to your usual linux VM. And you get the tight integration with the windows side of the machine for free, without fuss.
It’s very cool that you can have a workflow that starts in powershell, then executes commands in the bash shell, and the results stream right into powershell.
Yep. When I last had a windows machine at work I used WSL2 and for my workflow at least, it worked just like WSL1. I do know a few things changed between 1 and 2, but I never encountered them.
I don’t understand the pointless hate over wsl. Sure, it doesn’t replace Linux. It also doesn’t have to… Just having access to basic nix functionality from a windows desktop is still a useful feature. It makes stuff like putty mostly obsolete. It let’s windows users unpack tarballs without 7zip. It let’s developers play video games while “compiling”. It’s just an all-around convenient tool to have.
Maybe Microsoft wanted it to replace the Linux desktop, but since when has anyone really cared about what Microsoft wanted :P
Yeah, I don’t see what the big deal is. I won’t be switching from Windows anytime soon, for various reasons, but I very much appreciate being able to have access to a local linux environment without having to dual boot.
WSL + Docker is all I need :-)
Seriously, with the VSCode integration to control everything from your IDE.
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
While technically different (VM vs compatibility layer), WSL and Wine fill the same role. I have yet to see lots of people bashing Wine for being incomplete and imperfect.
Yeah, I can’t emphasize enough how it can’t replace Linux. And it doesn’t even always work that well for stuff that you’d expect to be able to work there.
I use Windows for my mostly-for-gaming desktop and because I’m very lazy with dual booting, I usually just use WSL if I wanna do some small thing. Or even some not so small thing. I tried to get stable diffusion working using it. I strongly dislike using the windows command line (I do all my professional dev on Linux and it’s what I’m most comfortable with), so I tried to use the Linux instructions with WSL. Did not go well. Wasted more time than I should have trying to make it work before I just gave up on that idea.
Not the first time I hit some weird WSL incompatibility either. I really should know better.
I spend like 80% of my work day in WSL. Using a Linux image that 100% matches the production environment, docker and k8s integration, and using VScode easily with WSL.
The big thing that makes is work is all I need is a command line.
Same, I have completely integrate WSL into my workflow. I use devcontainers with VScode and docker in WSL directly skipping docker in windows. It’s great
You’re right. It’s a great tool to have, and a much more efficient way to do lots of things than running a linux VM.
It is a Linux VM though. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
Yes, with WSL2, it’s implemented as a VM on hyper-v. But, that should be treated as an implementation detail, it’s a very light VM, compared to your usual linux VM. And you get the tight integration with the windows side of the machine for free, without fuss.
It’s very cool that you can have a workflow that starts in powershell, then executes commands in the bash shell, and the results stream right into powershell.
Is that still true with WSL2? It absolutely was with 1, but when 2 came out everyone said: Forget that we ever had WSL1.
Yep. When I last had a windows machine at work I used WSL2 and for my workflow at least, it worked just like WSL1. I do know a few things changed between 1 and 2, but I never encountered them.