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Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

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Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#342
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's missing from the Linux Desktop experience for you? I currently use all three operating systems on a weekly basis, Ubuntu with i3 (a window tiling manager) is my daily driver. Everytime I switch to windows or Mac os, it always feels like a downgrade for me because I can't replicate the tiling experience. The one thing I love about mac, is the trackpad experience, I wish windows and Linux could get to that level…

1. Update glibc and everything breaks 2. Update Nvidia drivers and everything breaks 3. 99% of laptops have at least one device with missing or broken drivers. 802.11ac is very old in 2021, but the most popular ac chips still need an out-of-tree driver which will break when you update your kernel. Have fun copying kernel patches from random forums 4. Even the smallest of changes (ex: set display scaling to something…

That hasn't been my experience at all - except for the graphics card issue where there is really some work to be done before the specific driver for the card works.

For everything else Linux is actually a lot easier to work with than Windows - where you may need to download specific drivers for it to work.

As for your comment about config files - the same is the case with Windows where instead of config files, you may need to tweak registry keys.

If you don't mind the default settings, it is about the same experience on Linux and Windows. When you start tweaking things, then your mileage will vary.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#343

I love WSL1. With WSL2 and the move to Hyper-V, I just decided to drop WSL and manage my own VM manually. I use the remote development tools on VSCode that power WSL to make everything feel like it's running on the host directly, just like WSL2. This way I don't have any confusion born from it pretending not to be a VM. No issues with network port mappings, dns stuff, who owns what binary and how does it execute? Whe…

What's missing from the Linux Desktop experience for you? I currently use all three operating systems on a weekly basis, Ubuntu with i3 (a window tiling manager) is my daily driver. Everytime I switch to windows or Mac os, it always feels like a downgrade for me because I can't replicate the tiling experience. The one thing I love about mac, is the trackpad experience, I wish windows and Linux could get to that level…

There was recently some kind of fundraiser to hire a developer fulltime to make the trackpad support on Linux closer to macOS.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#344

How is this better than just running vcxsrv and inside WSL setting DISPLAY=WINDOWS_HOST_IP:0? I've been doing this to run graphical linux apps for a couple years now, both on WSL1 and on a regular Hyper-V Linux VM.

It just works?

It seamlessly works with VcXsrv too after you set your DISPLAY. I've been using it for years too, even back in 2018 while running Sublime Text within WSL 1 as a primary code editor.

If you place your VcXsrv config in your Windows startup folder everything automatically works. I haven't touched my config in years. The machine boots and it's all good, complete with proper clipboard sharing so you can copy things to and from WSL.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#345
I will be the curmudgeon here I guess.

Microsoft has been following this strategy for a while. Announce something useful. I click in and look forward to start using it. How do I download it and get started?

Oh I need to install a beta version of Windows on my computer to use this feature. I dont want to do that.

Then weekly or biweekly new stories pop up and I hope it has had a proper release, but no, insider only.

I would prefer if MS announced, "tool under development to be released 03/25" and then "ready for production today". Synched so that you can get the correct version of windows to use the new tool/feature/framework.

It says it will ship with the next version of Windows, so it will ship in Windows 11 then?

I wish there was a meta tag on Hacker News that identified if a program, platform, airplane, city building, etc is vaporware, under real development or production ready / move in ready / book a flight ready etc etc.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#346
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's missing from the Linux Desktop experience for you? I currently use all three operating systems on a weekly basis, Ubuntu with i3 (a window tiling manager) is my daily driver. Everytime I switch to windows or Mac os, it always feels like a downgrade for me because I can't replicate the tiling experience. The one thing I love about mac, is the trackpad experience, I wish windows and Linux could get to that level…

Microsoft Word. That's literally the only thing which stops me from installing Windows on all of my friend's and family's aging laptops. LibreOffice just isn't capable of 100% replicating the formatting of a docx generated by Word, which for most people is a deal-breaker. (For me it's not, but for non-techie associates it is.) I just don't understand why there's not more pressure on MS to port Office to Linux in exch…

How much of a tinkerer are you? Try this: https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Providing POSIX and Linux-specific APIs does actually place them into Linux ecosystem. Programs bult for Linux suddenly can be run for Windows users. That's a boost in adoption potential for Linux programs (large part of the ecosystem). And adoption is very impotant for further development and success of software. On the other hand, for Linux users this makes Windows more attractive - why not choose Windows for your…

Yeah, that's what gets me: it's obviously engineered to drive traffic one way without giving anything back to the community. I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in APIs to interact with a black box. Until Microsoft makes Windows user-controllable, I will never treat it with respect. I do see your point, however, and I hadn't thought it of that way; do you see anywhere the community might pick up on this for some benefi…

Many ways. For example, it is more compelling to choose Linux as the target platform for new programs, because that way the program works both on Winoows an Linux. Therefore, more software for Linux world.

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#349
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just works?

It seamlessly works with VcXsrv too after you set your DISPLAY. I've been using it for years too, even back in 2018 while running Sublime Text within WSL 1 as a primary code editor. If you place your VcXsrv config in your Windows startup folder everything automatically works. I haven't touched my config in years. The machine boots and it's all good, complete with proper clipboard sharing so you can copy things to and…

I could never get VcXsrv to work with DPI scaling well. So many hacks upon hacks...

Re: Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI

#350

I love WSL1. With WSL2 and the move to Hyper-V, I just decided to drop WSL and manage my own VM manually. I use the remote development tools on VSCode that power WSL to make everything feel like it's running on the host directly, just like WSL2. This way I don't have any confusion born from it pretending not to be a VM. No issues with network port mappings, dns stuff, who owns what binary and how does it execute? Whe…

If your only experience with GNOME is Ubuntu, give Fedora a try. The parts are 95% identical but (in my opinion) the user experience is a lot more coherent, because it's all designed together and nothing's bolted on.
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