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Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

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Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#51

Post by mises »

glitchc wrote: post #48
mises wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which game? I don't agree with the position of the person to whom you are responding, but there's almost certainly much more optimization put into the Windows version.

Why is “much more optimization” a limitation? What is preventing devs from optimizing the linux version? If the OS is more performant that should require less effort, no?

My point is more that a game's performance is not necessarily a reliable way to measure relative performance of the OS. What game was it?

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#52

Post by morning_gelato »

glitchc wrote: post #48
mises wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which game? I don't agree with the position of the person to whom you are responding, but there's almost certainly much more optimization put into the Windows version.

Why is “much more optimization” a limitation? What is preventing devs from optimizing the linux version? If the OS is more performant that should require less effort, no?

Windows absolutely dwarfs Linux when it comes to gaming market share. Game developers will factor in return on investment and therefore a proportional amount time will be spent on optimizing the Linux port.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#54

Post by marmaduke »

wtallis wrote: post #45
asveikau wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't talking about WSL at all actually. I have never used it. Disk performance is just worse on Windows. With or without defender. (And defender is the default.)

Based on limited testing, I think IO is slower on Windows even when there's no filesystem involved at all. The block layer is just slower, despite having so few features that it's hardly worthy of being called a layer compared to what's possible on Linux.

Based on my limited testing, a VM running on a NTFS file backed disk runs just as fast natively.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#55

Post by pengwinhayden »

acqq wrote: post #44
ghostly_s wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Demotivating to whom? I imagine the intent is to avoid creating an impression that anyone has the power to make their pet issue priority #1 for the dev team just by throwing enough money at it.

But it's not for a "dev team" at all, the way I understood it, it's: "Learn how you can earn paid grants improving Pengwin." "Your proposal will be promptly evaluated" ... "Your work sample and GitHub history will be evaluated to determine if you have the technical competancy to implement the proposed change and deliver timely." "If approved, you will recieve a simple agreement covering the scope of the work you will…

You are correct. This is for contributors to get paid to add features they want to see in the project. I wish we had more applications under the grant program.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#56

Post by pengwinhayden »

penagwin wrote: post #30
crusso wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thought too. No matter what the implementation or ideas behind it... that's a killer name.

Hahaha such a great name yeah!

The name and logo were developed in consultantion with Dennis Bednarz. https://twitter.com/DennisBednarz

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#57

Post by chmod775 »

glitchc wrote: post #10
ncmncm wrote: post #4

This is fundamentally the wrong direction to go. The clue is that MSWin running in a VM on Linux is faster than on hardware. The way forward is to boot Linux, or even something else, to manage hardware, memory, and filesystems, and cut down MSWin to run in a container on it. That way MSWin relies on the underlying OS to do things MSWin has proven to be just not very good at. MSWin runs programs written for it, reliab…

I don’t believe your assertion. A quick check on the latest system-taxing application (aka a game), confirms the exact opposite. Even a cross-platform game, compiled natively for both OSes, runs faster on Windows in most cases. How do you square these observations with your assertion.

So you benchmarked something that will to 95% be constrained by graphics drivers and platform specific optimizations.

Afterwards you chimed in on a thread of people comparing file-system-performance constrained tasks, which hardly intersect with your test profile.

Finally you provided exactly no information of your test setup, tested titles, or actual results in numbers, giving people who would nonetheless entertain you nothing to work with.

Good job.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#58

Post by pengwinhayden »

kevin_b_er wrote: post #2

I tried looking around but didn't see anything about it. What makes this optimized for WSL?

We alter dozens of settings to defaults that make sense for the WSL environment. Unlike the other distributions available for WSL, Pengwin is designed for WSL first.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#59

Post by pengwinhayden »

writepub wrote: post #53

Can someone please enumerate how this is different from Ubuntu 18.04 (from Canonical) on WSL? Other than distro differences, I see a LOT of marketing speak in the Github ReadMe, but I can't tell if they really offer any advantage over competing offerings.

On a technical level Ubuntu 18.04 is based on a mix of Debian stable and testing with Canonical's additions.

Pengwin is primarily Debian testing, with some stable and some unstable here and there.

Pengwin configures dozens of settings for WSL and has optional WSL-specific features.

Settings are delivered by pengwin-base and features can be configured with pengwin-setup.

You could probably spend hours implementing these features on your own each time you have to install Ubuntu on a new Windows device.

But by purching Pengwin you support open source indie devs that handle it for you, answer bug reports, constantly add new featres, and are available for support.

Re: Pengwin – A Linux Distro Optimized for WSL Based on Debian

#60

Post by pengwinhayden »

bashinator wrote: post #32
cube2222 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only slow at file IO, yeah.

File IO can be vastly improved by excluding the WSL OS directory from Windows Defender real-time protection. Here's a gist that has powershell and GUI instructions for accomplishing this: https://gist.github.com/noelbundick/9c804a710eb76e1d6a234b14...

This is possible but not recommended unless you are very cautious.

Windows Defender protects from Windows malware entering via WSL and Linux malware as well.

For example Windows Defender has caught comprimised npm modules inside WSL.

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