5 ms·

What are some use cases that would cause a person to choose Windows as their primary OS, but require WSL? At what point do you just move to a *nix OS and virtua

by jtdev 6y ago

What are some use cases that would cause a person to choose Windows as their primary OS, but require WSL? At what point do you just move to a *nix OS and virtualize Windows on the rare occasion that it’s truly needed?

andybak 6y ago
I need Windows for Unity dev and VR.
- jtdev 6y ago
  It seems that gaming/graphics/VR is one of the last vestiges of Windows outside of the enterprise and consumers who don't really care what OS they run.
dijit 6y ago
Developing linux software on windows is actually pretty painful. Actually, running any linux software in general such as middleman or Jekyll is pretty painful on Windows- I recently had a horrible time trying to get git-crypt working for a colleague of mine who was using Windows.. There's a lot of value in being able to just run "linux" (with bash, grep, sed, awk, gcc, python) while being able to access your normal files on a Windows desktop. You _can_ do this with VirtualBox but it's janky, slow, buggy and generally awkward.
- jtdev 6y ago
  Why not just move to Linux?
  - kbumsik 6y ago
    The GUI isn't as great as Windows and it's often buggy. Let's face it.
    - yulaow 6y ago
      Do you find the microsoft gui great? Honest question, because I have a desktop with windows and I find its gui a clusterfuck of randomness, especially since it seems two or three different ui "languages" are constantly fighting each other since w8.
      - kbumsik 6y ago
        I'm not talking about the desktop UI/UX philosophy but the system itself. It is much more stable than Linux, especially where there's ongoing chaos regarding Wayland.
  - dijit 6y ago
    I work in game dev. Good luck getting people to switch. Retraining thousands of developers, retraining all our IT staff on how to deploy Linux machines reliably. Retooling all our built up support tools. It’s not feasible, as much as I wish it was.
matsemann 6y ago
Everyone on my team uses a Mac, except me. (I had one for three years, the hardware was nothing but problems, and didn't grow too fond of the OS either). My day-to-day development in Windows works fine, but lots of small stuff is done in a way that's not compatible with Windows. WSL solves that fine, without me having to be an edge-case, or everything having to be written so general as to work on every OS. Of course I could just run some Linux distro, but that again would be limiting for non-work-stuff and I prefer not switching between OSs daily. And last time I tried I had big issues with HDPI scaling between screens, hibernation etc. And really, I just don't care that much about what OS I run. Windows works.
sequence7 6y ago
Well I guess the main two would be: 1. You like windows 2. You want to use software or hardware that works best with windows Personally I like windows and I want to run Lightroom and various other software that doesn't work on linux. I also want to have a full *nix OS available and windows with wsl gives me exactly that.
cmiles74 6y ago
I need Windows to continue to work on these lame old .Net Framework applications that I have to maintain. I'm working on migrating them to .Net Core but that's not a priority for the company, it's something I do as time and budget allows. Running Visual Studio under a VM in Linux is fine here and there but unpleasant all day long. I also still need to maintain several Java projects and some tools that leverage Ruby. Using Java on Windows isn't a big deal, but the Ruby tools are aimed at Unix-ish platforms and I find it a lot easier to work with Ruby under WSL instead of messing around with native Ruby on Windows.
neogodless 6y ago
Up until recently, I've primarily been a C#/.NET developer and Visual Studio (2017/2019/Community/etc), IIS, T-SQL... all largely work best on Windows. Blizzard games (addicted to StarCraft for life, also enjoy Diablo 3). Steam games (some are supported under Linux but I know I can run all modern games with full video card driver support). WebEx - need this for work and it seems to really lack support under Linux. Couldn't figure out how to get this working on my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop. Also use RSA and Horizon VMWare and haven't dug into how well those apps work in Linux. I don't need WSL but I really like it. I get to dip my toes into Linux, and enjoy using bash, running MySQL under Linux, generally find the npm/yarn experience is better. If at this point you wonder why I don't go Mac it's mostly because I could never justify the price premium to get the hardware I want. In theory Hackintosh could fit the bill but I haven't tried it, and everything "just works" under Windows so I haven't felt the need.
frankohn 6y ago
- Games, many games are only available on Windows and drivers are best supported on Windows. - Work & business, many companies just require you to use Windows, so you have to. - Market share, if you are a developer and you want to reach as many people as possible you need to support Windows first. In theory you can develop for Windows being on a Linux PC using a VM or cross-compiler but this isn't always practical or possible. Just have a Windows PC is more simple.
bootlooped 6y ago
My simple answer: the IT department will let me have a Thinkpad or a Macbook Pro. You are not allowed to install the OS of your choice on the Thinkpad.

by jtdev 6y ago

andybak 6y ago

I need Windows for Unity dev and VR.

jtdev 6y ago
It seems that gaming/graphics/VR is one of the last vestiges of Windows outside of the enterprise and consumers who don't really care what OS they run.

dijit 6y ago

Developing linux software on windows is actually pretty painful. Actually, running any linux software in general such as middleman or Jekyll is pretty painful on Windows- I recently had a horrible time trying to get git-crypt working for a colleague of mine who was using Windows.. There's a lot of value in being able to just run "linux" (with bash, grep, sed, awk, gcc, python) while being able to access your normal files on a Windows desktop. You _can_ do this with VirtualBox but it's janky, slow, buggy and generally awkward.

jtdev 6y ago
Why not just move to Linux?
- kbumsik 6y ago
  The GUI isn't as great as Windows and it's often buggy. Let's face it.
  - yulaow 6y ago
    Do you find the microsoft gui great? Honest question, because I have a desktop with windows and I find its gui a clusterfuck of randomness, especially since it seems two or three different ui "languages" are constantly fighting each other since w8.
    - kbumsik 6y ago
      I'm not talking about the desktop UI/UX philosophy but the system itself. It is much more stable than Linux, especially where there's ongoing chaos regarding Wayland.
- dijit 6y ago
  I work in game dev. Good luck getting people to switch. Retraining thousands of developers, retraining all our IT staff on how to deploy Linux machines reliably. Retooling all our built up support tools. It’s not feasible, as much as I wish it was.

matsemann 6y ago

Everyone on my team uses a Mac, except me. (I had one for three years, the hardware was nothing but problems, and didn't grow too fond of the OS either). My day-to-day development in Windows works fine, but lots of small stuff is done in a way that's not compatible with Windows. WSL solves that fine, without me having to be an edge-case, or everything having to be written so general as to work on every OS. Of course I could just run some Linux distro, but that again would be limiting for non-work-stuff and I prefer not switching between OSs daily. And last time I tried I had big issues with HDPI scaling between screens, hibernation etc. And really, I just don't care that much about what OS I run. Windows works.

sequence7 6y ago

Well I guess the main two would be: 1. You like windows 2. You want to use software or hardware that works best with windows Personally I like windows and I want to run Lightroom and various other software that doesn't work on linux. I also want to have a full *nix OS available and windows with wsl gives me exactly that.

cmiles74 6y ago

I need Windows to continue to work on these lame old .Net Framework applications that I have to maintain. I'm working on migrating them to .Net Core but that's not a priority for the company, it's something I do as time and budget allows. Running Visual Studio under a VM in Linux is fine here and there but unpleasant all day long. I also still need to maintain several Java projects and some tools that leverage Ruby. Using Java on Windows isn't a big deal, but the Ruby tools are aimed at Unix-ish platforms and I find it a lot easier to work with Ruby under WSL instead of messing around with native Ruby on Windows.

neogodless 6y ago

Up until recently, I've primarily been a C#/.NET developer and Visual Studio (2017/2019/Community/etc), IIS, T-SQL... all largely work best on Windows. Blizzard games (addicted to StarCraft for life, also enjoy Diablo 3). Steam games (some are supported under Linux but I know I can run all modern games with full video card driver support). WebEx - need this for work and it seems to really lack support under Linux. Couldn't figure out how to get this working on my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop. Also use RSA and Horizon VMWare and haven't dug into how well those apps work in Linux. I don't need WSL but I really like it. I get to dip my toes into Linux, and enjoy using bash, running MySQL under Linux, generally find the npm/yarn experience is better. If at this point you wonder why I don't go Mac it's mostly because I could never justify the price premium to get the hardware I want. In theory Hackintosh could fit the bill but I haven't tried it, and everything "just works" under Windows so I haven't felt the need.

frankohn 6y ago

- Games, many games are only available on Windows and drivers are best supported on Windows. - Work & business, many companies just require you to use Windows, so you have to. - Market share, if you are a developer and you want to reach as many people as possible you need to support Windows first. In theory you can develop for Windows being on a Linux PC using a VM or cross-compiler but this isn't always practical or possible. Just have a Windows PC is more simple.

bootlooped 6y ago

My simple answer: the IT department will let me have a Thinkpad or a Macbook Pro. You are not allowed to install the OS of your choice on the Thinkpad.