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given the popularity of WSL on Windows 10..i think we will see Windows becoming the best Linux platform there is. A lot of gamers i know have switched to using

given the popularity of WSL on Windows 10..i think we will see Windows becoming the best Linux platform there is. A lot of gamers i know have switched to using WSL for development (unless they have political objections). I think it will be more likely in the future that Linux gamers be asked to become WSL Gamers In fact, WSL works so well (including Docker and Kubernetes stuff), that i have a strong suspicion that Microsoft sales staff have been leashed pretty deliberately for optics reasons.

peteforde 7y ago
After enjoying "the good years" on Mac, I've been a daily Ubuntu user for two years and given I'm not a heavy gamer, I don't jump into Windows that often. That said, I'm in the process of building a new primary machine and it's going to be WSL because I want to have it all: functional SteamVR, titles that work by default instead of pleasant surprise, not having to accept whatever monopoly-building bully-tactics Apple decides to force down the pipe... I know that, at least in Wall Street terms, Apple is now a lifestyle fashion accessory manufacturer that only supports Macs and OS X because they feel generous, but it still makes me really sad. They clearly don't want to play ball with the mainstream gaming world, that's for sure. And "Tim Apple" believes that AR is more important than VR, so I don't anticipate the VR front getting any love period. And so I fold my hand. I used to feel like using Mac OS or Ubuntu was a legitimate power move and not just a political act, but these days the only people who deliberately choose Apple or Linux as a daily-drive OS are just masochists when WSL is so well implemented. If the Windows kernel ended up being the best Linux infrastructure, there's a dark joke in there somewhere.
Jnr 7y ago
WSL has no real hardware access and still runs on NTFS which is terribly slow. Windows developers will probably try to fix it somehow but it is not there yet Another option is to run Windows on top of Linux. But it currently also has some drawbacks.
- sandGorgon 7y ago
  WSL2 (which im talking about ) is blazing fast. It runs a full linux kernel and not the WSL 1 NTFS emulation layer. https://medium.com/swlh/wsl-2-docker-edge-tech-preview-native-linux-containers-w-o-emulation-b41667e6dbef https://medium.com/swlh/wsl-2-docker-edge-tech-preview-nativ... It has full Docker Edge support now and CUDA support is upcoming. I'm genuinely impressed by WSL2
  - pram 7y ago
    WSL2 is just a hyper-v container, which Docker for windows already used?
    - sandGorgon 7y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhMThePdIo&t=2818s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhMThePdIo&t=2818s WinNT Kernel and Linux Kernel are running on top of Hypervisor platform side-by-side .... not one-in-the-other.
  - the_white_oak 7y ago
    NTFS is a file system, which WSL 2 still runs on. WSL 2 is much better, but NTFS is still dragging it back. I hope one day, Microsoft will make a leap and introduce a faster file system or a proper support with good drivers for ext4 or something like this.
pjmlp 7y ago
Linux would probably never had taken off if Microsoft had taken proper care of the POSIX personality on Windows NT. As proven by Mac OS X adoption by GNU/Linux refugees, at the end of the day what a large majority cares about is a POSIX shell and related POSIX C APIs. Three decades later, it is easier to just provide WSL environment than POSIX source code compatibility, and WSL2 distribution is the one taking the desktops.

peteforde 7y ago

After enjoying "the good years" on Mac, I've been a daily Ubuntu user for two years and given I'm not a heavy gamer, I don't jump into Windows that often. That said, I'm in the process of building a new primary machine and it's going to be WSL because I want to have it all: functional SteamVR, titles that work by default instead of pleasant surprise, not having to accept whatever monopoly-building bully-tactics Apple decides to force down the pipe... I know that, at least in Wall Street terms, Apple is now a lifestyle fashion accessory manufacturer that only supports Macs and OS X because they feel generous, but it still makes me really sad. They clearly don't want to play ball with the mainstream gaming world, that's for sure. And "Tim Apple" believes that AR is more important than VR, so I don't anticipate the VR front getting any love period. And so I fold my hand. I used to feel like using Mac OS or Ubuntu was a legitimate power move and not just a political act, but these days the only people who deliberately choose Apple or Linux as a daily-drive OS are just masochists when WSL is so well implemented. If the Windows kernel ended up being the best Linux infrastructure, there's a dark joke in there somewhere.

Jnr 7y ago

WSL has no real hardware access and still runs on NTFS which is terribly slow. Windows developers will probably try to fix it somehow but it is not there yet Another option is to run Windows on top of Linux. But it currently also has some drawbacks.

sandGorgon 7y ago
WSL2 (which im talking about ) is blazing fast. It runs a full linux kernel and not the WSL 1 NTFS emulation layer. https://medium.com/swlh/wsl-2-docker-edge-tech-preview-native-linux-containers-w-o-emulation-b41667e6dbef https://medium.com/swlh/wsl-2-docker-edge-tech-preview-nativ... It has full Docker Edge support now and CUDA support is upcoming. I'm genuinely impressed by WSL2
- pram 7y ago
  WSL2 is just a hyper-v container, which Docker for windows already used?
  - sandGorgon 7y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhMThePdIo&t=2818s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwhMThePdIo&t=2818s WinNT Kernel and Linux Kernel are running on top of Hypervisor platform side-by-side .... not one-in-the-other.
- the_white_oak 7y ago
  NTFS is a file system, which WSL 2 still runs on. WSL 2 is much better, but NTFS is still dragging it back. I hope one day, Microsoft will make a leap and introduce a faster file system or a proper support with good drivers for ext4 or something like this.

pjmlp 7y ago

Linux would probably never had taken off if Microsoft had taken proper care of the POSIX personality on Windows NT. As proven by Mac OS X adoption by GNU/Linux refugees, at the end of the day what a large majority cares about is a POSIX shell and related POSIX C APIs. Three decades later, it is easier to just provide WSL environment than POSIX source code compatibility, and WSL2 distribution is the one taking the desktops.