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Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

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Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#251

Post by spijdar »

TrispusAttucks wrote: post #242

Anyone else worrying about Windows swallowing up Linux? I hope their intentions are altruistic.

For better or for worse, I'm not sure the aggregate direction Microsoft takes as a company is either altruistic or malicious, I'm pretty sure it's ultimately profit driven.

I expect there are MS engineers who see this as altruistic and executives that see this as a way to keep developers from moving off Windows and ultimately as customers. In the end, I'm not sure what this will mean for "desktop Linux". I've already had one colleague dump "bare metal Linux" in favor of Win10 + WSL2.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#252

Post by nine_k »

sverhagen wrote: post #204
pxc wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

As far as I know, both the NT kernel and the WSL2 Linux kernel use the same hypervisor below them.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#253

Post by JoshTriplett »

Stratoscope wrote: post #244
reilly3000 wrote: post #31

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…

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

> • I run the external displays at 200% scaling and the internal at 300% to match the differing pixel density. I didn't see any way to support this configuration in Ubuntu, much less be able to move an app window between displays and have it automatically update its scaling factor to match the display. This works "out of the box" in Windows.

This works if you use Wayland rather than X11. I'm using a similar configuration today.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#254

Post by Teknoman117 »

Stratoscope wrote: post #244
reilly3000 wrote: post #31

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…

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

To be honest, with the amount of video meetings I have, I invested in a far better audio setup than Bluetooth headset microphone.

The amount of meetings I've had where the audio from the other end sounds like the BART announcements is too high...

That being said, I know what you mean. However, I'm actually rather annoyed at the headset microphone functionality on windows, because if anything starts using the microphone, it switches modes and the audio quality goes way, way down. Fine for a zoom call maybe, but having horrible audio in a video game is not fun. I constantly have to go to control panel to turns off hands-free telephony.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#255

Post by jimmaswell »

PufPufPuf wrote: post #210
gigel82 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Why did you want to develop it through WSL2 instead of just compiling it on windows?

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#256

Post by Stratoscope »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #253
Stratoscope wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

> • I run the external displays at 200% scaling and the internal at 300% to match the differing pixel density. I didn't see any way to support this configuration in Ubuntu, much less be able to move an app window between displays and have it automatically update its scaling factor to match the display. This works "out of the box" in Windows. This works if you use Wayland rather than X11. I'm using a similar configura…

That is good to know, thanks for the tip! I will definitely try that whenever I use Linux on the hardware in the future.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#258

Post by Stratoscope »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #254
Stratoscope wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

To be honest, with the amount of video meetings I have, I invested in a far better audio setup than Bluetooth headset microphone. The amount of meetings I've had where the audio from the other end sounds like the BART announcements is too high... That being said, I know what you mean. However, I'm actually rather annoyed at the headset microphone functionality on windows, because if anything starts using the micropho…

Audio quality matters to me too, and of course the AirPods are quite a compromise. The speakers in them sound good enough, but I know the microphones are not great. Mind sharing some details of your audio setup?

I do like having wireless headphones of one sort or another, so I can walk around while staying in the conversation.

Also, over-the-ear or in-the-ear (the kind that go into your ear canal) headphones don't work for me. The only kind I'm really comfortable with are the kind that sit lightly in my outer ear, e.g. AirPods and not AirPods Pro.

But in any case, I'm eager to hear about your setup. And I'm probably not the only one who would welcome better quality audio. Thanks!

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#259

Post by godelski »

Stratoscope wrote: post #244
reilly3000 wrote: post #31

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…

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

About the headphones, are you sure you've selected the right thing in the app? Not pulseaudio, but zoom. I had this problem that zoom would ignore whatever I set with pulse. Once I figured this out my problems went away.

For games, proton has come a long way. I don't find myself needing to boot out of Linux very often anymore.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#260

Post by Stratoscope »

godelski wrote: post #259
Stratoscope wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though our dev environment at work is Ubuntu, I greatly prefer running Windows on my ThinkPad X1 Extreme, because of the superior hardware support for the devices I use. Specifically: • I spend a fair amount of time on Zoom calls (who doesn't?), and I like to use my Apple AirPods so I can move around while we talk. I was never was able to get these or any other Bluetooth headset to work on Ubuntu. They pair only…

About the headphones, are you sure you've selected the right thing in the app? Not pulseaudio, but zoom. I had this problem that zoom would ignore whatever I set with pulse. Once I figured this out my problems went away. For games, proton has come a long way. I don't find myself needing to boot out of Linux very often anymore.

Thanks for asking. In fact that is one of my pet peeves with Zoom, that it has its own audio selection independent of the host OS. This is a problem on Windows as well - and I assume on macOS too.

I have a friend who uses Zoom a lot on her Windows laptop, and this "feature" of Zoom has messed her meetings up so many times!

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