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…
If all your development is on Linux, it’a convenient to run IDE there as well.
I wonder how many people who rely on Linux have truly moved to WSL? I gave it a try and I find real Linux vastly superior. Hybrid Windows+WSL apps, what is the point? Developing Windows apps with .NET is very easy and pleasant. Don't get me wrong, I agree we should be concerned about WSL. But I think it's also very possible Microsoft recognizes developers that aren't developing with MS tech (ie anything but .NET thes…
I'd believe their target isn't users who are already using Linux, but users who will be using Linux for first time going forward. Think all the university students who made Linux the system to develop on will now make Linux on Windows as that system. Eventually, WSL will take over baremetal Linux because it was more convenient to get started, technical superiority notwithstanding.
I don't think that's it. it targets frustrated Linux devs that are tired of Gnome/KDE/X/Wayland wars, and things breaking if you don't do things just right. I spent 2 years on pure Linux and I switched back to Windows + WSL2 and I'm pretty happy. use it for work and personal use. It gives me the apps and use ability of OSX, the Linux console and none of the headache. maybe I'm just out of the honeymoon phase but I'm tired of constantly tinkering with Linux to get it to work. to install the right tool, outdated stuff in package managers, etc.
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…
I was looking into this further because it’s sort of impacting my dual-boot workflow. I have ext4 media drives on Linux that aren’t viewable or readable from Windows, but Linux can at least read the NTFS drive. The third parties I’ve tried in the past for making Ext4 readable in Windows File Explorer have some sketchy security concerns and/or missing Win10 support. It looks like using the method described in the link…
You can use WSL to mount ext4 and other filesystems supported in linux.
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…
you would be surprised at what a large effect the removal of friction can have. I bet this will convince a decent chunk of people that dual booting isn't worth it
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 n…
It's almost like they're trying to embrace the Linux ecosystem and extend it for windows users...
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…
So even if a windows build is available, sometimes the user experience of linux-first software on windows can be subobtimal because of differences in filesystem and process model of the two operating systems. I much prefer using git and emacs within WSL than their windows builds.
> The only reason I run windows in the first place is for a few apps, mostly games
Another reason to use windows is if you are on a laptop and care about battery life. Browsers on Linux still don't have hardware accelerated video playback.
It is, just with some fancy integrations that makes it more comfortable - for example memory reclamation. But it's all a fancy VM in the end.
A super fast one. After one click, within 2-3 seconds I can have an Ubuntu terminal open with wsl. To spin up a vm from let’s say VMware, I need at least 10times that.
I don't think that's magic in the hypervisor, so I doubt it affects overall performance of the VM very much. But WSL images have a special boot process instead of a full init system like systemd, which is probably where the fast startup comes from. Maybe it also has to do with how they configure storage for the VM. On real hardware with a decent SSD, Ubuntu usually gets you a graphical login in less than 10 seconds.
Anyway it's a cool feature, and I'd love to know more about how it works.
For those that don't know, this will only be available in Windows 11, see https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/issues/347#issuecomment-87...
I see that those of us with a 7th gen Intel core CPU that "need not to worry because W10 will be supported for years" will immediately start missing functionality.
Support doesn’t mean you get all the new features.