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I can't claim to know the OP's perspective w.r.t. why he / she doesn't like programming on Windows, but as an early (and current) user of the WSL I can say that
by Brain_Thief 8y ago
I can't claim to know the OP's perspective w.r.t. why he / she doesn't like programming on Windows, but as an early (and current) user of the WSL I can say that I too dislike the overall experience, mostly due to how it colors my experience programming and using the system. Windows has an intensely corporate feeling to me that I can't seem to shake; it's obvious to me when I'm using it that I don't in any sense "own" my system, and that my behavior is being monitored and recorded on some level. The next update will inevitably bring some setting reversion to a pro-tracking default, and the lack of visual and system-level customization options takes a lot of the joy out of system setup, management, and exploration for me. Windows is, and always has been, a corporate productivity environment at its core, and it's very good in that role, but it feels awfully stiff and suffocating as a dev environment to me. Minor technical frictions like moving data and files between Windows land and my WSL home directory add just enough unnecessary overhead to my workflow that I find myself constantly questioning what actual value the entire thing provides. I suppose for people who are chained to specific Microsoft productivity software it's a good option, but in the absence of such a requirement I don't really understand the appeal.
To be fair, the environment is nice, and the WSL is certainly an impressive technical accomplishment (no question there!), but it doesn't have the feeling of a Linux to me. The freedom, control, and transparency just aren't there.
- komali2 8y ago> and the lack of visual and system-level customization options takes a lot of the joy out of system setup, management, and exploration Exactly this. A good part of the joy I get in seeking out an awesome ultra-portable (and in doing so, experimenting with my mobile workflow) is the high customization I get from Linux machines. Sadly the two best portable contenders (ChromeOS and Windows) in terms of feasibility, don't meet this.