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The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

blogs.windows.com

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Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#691

Post by int_19h »

cma wrote: post #187
arghwhat wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NTFS is not the problem. The problem is Windows IO filters and whatnot, Microsoft Defender trying to lazily intercept every file operation, and if you're crossing between windows and Linux land, possibly 9pfs network shares. WSL2's own disk is just a VM image and fairly fast - you're just accessing a single file with some special optimizations. Usually far, far more responsive than anything done by windows itself. Do…

>The problem is Windows IO filters Not the biggest issue of them, 'find' and 'git status' on WSL2 in a big project is still >100 times slower on windows dev drive which avoids those filters than it is with WSL 1 on dev drive. WSL 1 on regular ntfs with defender disabled is about 4x slower than WSL1 on dev drive, so that stuff does cause some of it, but WSL2 feels hopelessly slow. And wsl 2 can't share memory as well…

Running WSL2 on Dev Drive means that you're effectively doing network I/O (to localhost); of course it's slow. It's also very pointless since your WSL2 FS is already a separate VHD.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#692

Post by shmerl »

jchw wrote: post #56
elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

"More powerful than Linux" is silly. It's a VM. The most useful thing is that it does a bunch of convenience features for you. I am not suggesting that it is not extremely convenient, but it's not somehow more powerful than just using Linux. You know what's even more convenient than a VM? Not needing a VM and still having the exact same functionality. And you don't need a bunch of janky wrapper scripts, there's more…

> You know what's even more convenient than a VM? Not needing a VM and still having the exact same functionality.

Exactly.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#694

Post by shmerl »

dvtkrlbs wrote: post #65
righthand wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. This is why you pay karma tax. This statement is so clearly representative of a falsity. My linux can run multiple linuxes as well without VM overhead. Something Windows can’t do. Furthermore WINE allows me to forgo running any vm to run windows applications. I developed on WSL for 3 years and consisten…

Except Wine cant cover all of Windows (partly due to fault of Windows). I can't run UWP apps for example. Windows is not a good operating system but if you need it. WSL creates way more intuitive working environment for you. So even if you can run multiple Linux OSes in Linux you can't run Windows as easily you can do linux on Windows. So OPs statement is not incorrect.

Is anything using UWP? It's a complete dead end.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#695

Post by odie5533 »

ben-schaaf wrote: post #676
incoming1211 wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you believe the 600+ people with the same problem here: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197

I knew which issue this was before I clicked it. Oh hey, there's me commenting in the issue a year ago!

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#696

Post by odie5533 »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #92

I've been using WSL on and off for Linux development for the last few years. When it works, it's great! When it doesn't....oh man it sucks. It has been non-stop networking and VPN problems, XServer issues, window scaling issues, hardware accelerated graphics not working, etc. this whole time. I've spent more time trying to fix WSL issues then actually developing software. It's never gotten better. It's fast. It's pow…

I use WSL as daily drive for dev. Never had any issues. Love it. I use it from VS Code.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#697

Post by OhMeadhbh »

elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

I'm not the biggest fan of WSL2, but it's definitely good enough for people to like it. it's worked well enough for me in the past, but the last time I used it, there were problems with mDNS and BPF that it just made more sense for me to boot into leenucks.

But you're definitely not crazy for liking it. And people should chill out instead of downvoting for someone who just says what works for them.

I haven't tried Win11 and probably won't unless my employer forces me to. But if Win11+WSL2 works for you, more power to you.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#698

Post by sagarm »

makeitdouble wrote: post #551
ok123456 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My coworkers stubbornly try to use WSL instead of Linux directly. They constantly run into corner cases and waste time working around them compared to just using Linux. Some tooling detects that it is running on Windows, and some detects that it is running on Linux. In practice, it's the worst of both worlds.

Saying running full Linux avoids wasting time on fiddly workarounds kinda blows my mind. Full hardware support is still not a given, and Windows emulation is still need for so many cases (e.g. games, specialized software etc). Until I can choose any machine based on form factor and specs alone and just run Linux on it, WSL will the best version of Linux it can run.

Why would your primary work device be running an OS not supported by the device vendor? That's just bizarre.

I use Linux as my primary OS, and while Proton/Steam are pretty good now I'm still rebooting into (unactivated) Windows for some games. It's fine. It's also the only thing I use Windows for.

On an unrelated note, I'm frankly confused about who wants Apple's janky OS, because I've been forced to use it for work and it is very annoying.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#699

Post by emmelaich »

rao-v wrote: post #186
elif wrote: post #7

Every time I praise WSL on hn I pay the karma tax but I will die on this hill. WSL is more powerful than Linux because of how easy it is to run multiple OS on the same computer simultaneously. It's as powerful as Linux with some janky custom local docker wrappers for device support, local storage mapping, and network mapping. Except it's not janky at all. It's an absolute delight to use, out of the box, on a desktop…

I'm with you - after years of messing with dualboot Linux, including (foolishly) running multiday Gentoo builds, WSL + Windows now gives me everything I want from Linux with zero friction. In fact, I'm a little annoyed that I can't get a comparably smooth experience on my MacBook without spinning up a full QEMU VM. I know it's a bit hypocritical since, like most people, I run WSL2 (which is container/VM-based), not W…

Try https://tart.run/

>Native performance Tart is using Apple’s native Virtualization.Framework that was developed along with architecting the first M1 chip. This seamless integration between hardware and software ensures smooth performance without any drawbacks.

Re: The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

#700

Post by not_a_bot_4sho »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #684

why is not called Linux subsystem for windows??? or its just programmer bad naming things

It's one of those things that make sense if you understand the details.

Windows NT itself has had an architecture supporting environment subsystems for things like Win32, POSIX, OS/2 for decades. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Windows_NT for more details. Later, it made it relatively easy to host Linux and Android too.

You can imagine they commonly called these things "subsystem for XYZ". So "Windows subsystem for Linux" made sense for those in the know.

Does sound weird outside of the world of NT though

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