One could run Linux and use Wine to run some Windows apps. On the other hand one can run Windows and use WSL to run some Linux apps. Depending on the individual's needs which apps are important to have access to the decision could go either way. This is why Microsoft is investing in projects like this - to tip the scales and lure more users to run Windows as primary OS.
P.S. And then there is Google which wants you not to care about OS as long as it could launch Chrome browser, and to use web apps instead of native.
> It would be nice if they did something actually useful, like add native ext4 support. Other way around. The Kernel getting real support for NTFS (was merged into Linus' tree a month ago [0]) there's hope to get native performance on WSL2. Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade. [0] https://www.linuxtoday.com/news/linux-kernel-5-15-will-have-...
> Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade. Big claim, most devs I've met either use Mac or Ubuntu. Can't remember anyone using Windows...
It’s pretty common among game, .net, and Java EE devs. For me as a Python/Node/Cloud dev it was kinda a nonstarter (it all theoretically works, but has all kinds of little bugs and caveats) until WSL was stable. Since then it’s been perfectly viable for anything I’m working on, and I was able to use it exclusively for dev work for about 6 months. I have a Mac laptop too, but my desktop is too beefy to not use as my daily driver. Still, I prefer Linux for development work.
You can always fall back on the Linux Subsystem for Windows GUI, aka WINE/DOSBox/VMW/VBX/QEMU, with varying levels of integration/fiddle/config.
Varying levels of integration, with fiddling being required less and less (eg. Proton), and with a nuch higher level of privacy. Also, I don't want my computer to feel like a billboard for Candy Crush Saga.
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As someone who uses Windows as their main driver, I will personally find it a useful way to test/debug our Electron based app on Linux. Right now I’m using a full VM. When you consider that Edge is available for Linux, MS could very well be using WSLg to develop it. So it seems to me that this just makes it easier to anything you need to do on Linux, “on” Windows. Of course making it easier for people on Windows to m…
> Right now I’m using a full VM. WSL2 is also a full VM
Is that so? Isn't it more like a bridge between Linux and Windows kernels, so that stuff is ultimately delegated to Windows?
the reverse would also be pretty useful. heck if they would pull off office for linux even when they would charge windows pro and a 365 license it would probably be welcomed.
I would buy that the moment it is released. That would be the fabled Year of the Linux Desktop.
You can always just use Unity mode on the free VMware Player. VMware may allocate resources, but plays nicely with sharing them when not actually in use, so there's not much a performance hit on the host machine unless you really need to do something that has the CPU pegged.
I think VirtualBox has a similar feature, but in my limited experience VB doesn't perform as well as VMware.
> It would be nice if they did something actually useful, like add native ext4 support. Other way around. The Kernel getting real support for NTFS (was merged into Linus' tree a month ago [0]) there's hope to get native performance on WSL2. Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade. [0] https://www.linuxtoday.com/news/linux-kernel-5-15-will-have-...
> Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade. Big claim, most devs I've met either use Mac or Ubuntu. Can't remember anyone using Windows...
There are literally dozens of us!
No, really, when all of my development happens over SSH or inside Docker anyway, it doesn't really matter which is the "outer" OS. I'm happy with Windows.
I wonder what Linux exclusive software they are hoping to support. Everything I use in my Ubuntu daily driver has a Windows build or corollary app. I get how ‘you never have to leave Windows’ is a nice thing for their business, but I don’t see this being a reason I would stop dual-booting. The only reason I run windows in the first place is for a few apps, mostly games. Otherwise I really enjoy the bloat-free, ad-fre…
They’re supporting servers. That’s the whole story. They won business desktops but lost enterprise in the “anything that requires network access”, and want to continue to sell software to those customers. Making development less onerous supports that goal.
I wonder what Linux exclusive software they are hoping to support. Everything I use in my Ubuntu daily driver has a Windows build or corollary app. I get how ‘you never have to leave Windows’ is a nice thing for their business, but I don’t see this being a reason I would stop dual-booting. The only reason I run windows in the first place is for a few apps, mostly games. Otherwise I really enjoy the bloat-free, ad-fre…
IIRC, they were primarily interested in getting GPU acceleration (for ML tasks) to work in WSL2. I presume getting GUI working on top of those GPU APIs was a trivial task (and maybe done by one of their interns or during a hackathon).
GPU passthrough on WSL2 is a thing since around December 2020 -- but I'm not sure if it's in stable yet, I had to install an insider build for it. It works surprisingly well and I was able to develop my ML project using it (with the help of VSCode devcontainers)