4 ms·

So many people in this thread that think that this is the end of WSL and you should use Cygwin instead. Laughing. Cygwin is awful compared to WSL. Poor perform

So many people in this thread that think that this is the end of WSL and you should use Cygwin instead. Laughing. Cygwin is awful compared to WSL. Poor performance, always gotchas, cygpath handling etc. Sure it was a good option back in the day and a good engineering feat. With WSL I get an environment that behaves exactly like Linux, complete POSIX without gotchas. I work with WSL all the time on files located on Windows partions. Works perfectly. Just create symlinks in WSL to Windows folders and you are ready to go. Why do people even need to work with files in the hidden system folder? The only files that I maybe want to change from Windows to WSL would be .bashrc et al, but just copy it or edit them from WSL and problem solved. If I don't want to use WSL and I only need a shell, then MSYS2 is the way to go, handles Windows and POSIX paths interchangeably without the cygpaths hassle. And no, WSL is not like SFU, that never really worked.

JdeBP 10y ago
You clearly only used the first Windows NT POSIX subsystem, and never used Interix, the second one. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11416392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11416392 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12866843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12866843
- fetbaffe 10y ago
  I used the second one, SFU 3.5, with Windows XP.
  - JdeBP 10y ago
    Your description does not match what I know of it from direct experience, and is more appropriate to the first one.
    - fetbaffe 10y ago
      What have I described?
ezy 10y ago
Honestly, as weird as cygwin can be, I question the judgement of relying on Linux's chief competitor to keep a mock linux kernel interface as well supported as the OS they really care about. Are you really sure that environment will be working in Windows 11... windows 12? etc? This just seems like a really bad idea compared to simply running a VM and sharing a filesystem using networking or other means... It's not like a modern machine, even a shitty netbook nowadays, can't handle a virtualbox instance, or localhost networking.
- fetbaffe 10y ago
  Microsoft of today is not a software company, they are a service company. So how their services are delivered, from a competitor for example, is not that relevant anymore. But assume you are 100% right that the WSL environment is removed or stops working in Windows 11+, how is that affecting my Linux experience with WSL today? Not one bit, because if it would change in the next release I can when i happens start a Virtualbox, but why run it now and have inferior experience when the result is the same? Does not make any sense. Or I can switch to Linux even, still same old shell.

JdeBP 10y ago

You clearly only used the first Windows NT POSIX subsystem, and never used Interix, the second one. * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11416392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11416392 * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12866843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12866843

fetbaffe 10y ago
I used the second one, SFU 3.5, with Windows XP.
- JdeBP 10y ago
  Your description does not match what I know of it from direct experience, and is more appropriate to the first one.
  - fetbaffe 10y ago
    What have I described?

ezy 10y ago

Honestly, as weird as cygwin can be, I question the judgement of relying on Linux's chief competitor to keep a mock linux kernel interface as well supported as the OS they really care about. Are you really sure that environment will be working in Windows 11... windows 12? etc? This just seems like a really bad idea compared to simply running a VM and sharing a filesystem using networking or other means... It's not like a modern machine, even a shitty netbook nowadays, can't handle a virtualbox instance, or localhost networking.

fetbaffe 10y ago
Microsoft of today is not a software company, they are a service company. So how their services are delivered, from a competitor for example, is not that relevant anymore. But assume you are 100% right that the WSL environment is removed or stops working in Windows 11+, how is that affecting my Linux experience with WSL today? Not one bit, because if it would change in the next release I can when i happens start a Virtualbox, but why run it now and have inferior experience when the result is the same? Does not make any sense. Or I can switch to Linux even, still same old shell.