Windows for Linux Nerds

Post by unabridged » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 4:11 AM UTC

jstarks wrote: post #93

userbinator wrote: post #69

If you need to access files in VolFS, you can use bash.exe to copy them somewhere under /mnt/c, use Windows to do whatever on it, then use bash.exe to copy them back when you are done. IMHO this is the worst-designed(?) part of the whole WSL. Copying files back and forth is the antithesis of a "seamless Windows and Linux experience", to put it mildly. From that perspective it's no better than running an isolated VM.…

I'm sorry that we don't provide a way to access the Linux portion of the file system directly from Windows yet. It's annoying, and we are working to improve it. For many use cases it suffices to symlink a Windows directory (e.g. /mnt/c/Users/myuser) into your WSL $HOME directory somewhere and do your source work, builds, etc. in that path. This breaks down if you need certain features that aren't supported on these f…

Post by monkmartinez » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 4:14 AM UTC

unabridged wrote: post #121

jstarks wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry that we don't provide a way to access the Linux portion of the file system directly from Windows yet. It's annoying, and we are working to improve it. For many use cases it suffices to symlink a Windows directory (e.g. /mnt/c/Users/myuser) into your WSL $HOME directory somewhere and do your source work, builds, etc. in that path. This breaks down if you need certain features that aren't supported on these f…

I know this probably goes well beyond the scope of your department but here is my wishlist that would convince me to buy windows: 1. Support for ZFS (and future open source filesystems as they appear) 2. The ability to control every service running, and good honest descriptions of what each service does. The ability to control all the servers my computer is connecting to and a transparent view of the information they…

Post by will_hughes » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 4:19 AM UTC

shmerl wrote: post #120

will_hughes wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm uncertain if you're asking "Why use WSL vs VM" or "Why use WSL/Linux VM if you can run Linux directly". For the first: Unified filesystem, memory, processor resources. You don't need to have the extra overhead of running a VM. For the second: The reason to run Windows is the same as the reason to run MacOS - so you can run apps for those platforms. If you don't need to do that, then obviously there's little/no po…

Well, for running Windows applications on Linux we have Wine already. I'm not saying WSL isn't an interesting thing, but if I'd had such choice, I would have run Linux natively first, in VM as second best option, and WSL as last resort.

Post by tagurit » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 4:19 AM UTC

monkmartinez wrote: post #119

blunte wrote: post #116

Want to _really_ impress us, Microsoft? Give us a Windows Subsystem for Linux. I chose a maxxed out Dell XPS15 laptop with Windows 10 to replace my 3 year old rMBP with the (foolish) expectation that it could replace my Mac. Apple had lost sight of what mattered to developers, and I was angry. But now, 2 months later, here I continue developing and existing on my old rMBP. Bash in Windows is incredibly slow on some a…

Why not dual boot linux and windows 10 or use a Linux VM? It takes like 10-15 seconds to reboot a machine these days. I am about to take the plunge toward a ThinkPad after many years with OSX (I haven't upgraded my 2011 17" to macOS). My plan is to try dual booting linux and/or using a Linux VM. I think the biggest hurdle will be changing my mindset. That is, looking for the OSX version of whatever it is I am looking…

Post by zengid » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 4:20 AM UTC

tootie wrote: post #22

A lot of snarky comments here, but I've been using Ubuntu shell on Win 10 for the past few weeks and it's really fantastic. Way faster than a VM and much more compatible than cygwin or msys.