4 ms·

I almost don't want to answer, I'm wary about the replies telling me how I'm doing it wrong or how I'm unlucky with my hardware (with a hint of "I don't believe

I almost don't want to answer, I'm wary about the replies telling me how I'm doing it wrong or how I'm unlucky with my hardware (with a hint of "I don't believe you") or with guides about setting up stuff. I'm a linux guy, I've used linux almost exclusively for the past 10 years, but one of my two laptops recently started running Windows10 + WSL2. Why I use it: - WSL2 is usable. Looks like a linux, smells like a linux, and performance is way faster than on my linux laptop (purely because the windows laptop hardware is much more beefy, I'm just saying WSL2 performance isn't a bottleneck) - Games, obviously, and I'm sure you know that. There's a non-negligible overlap between gamers and developers. VR games on linux is a no-go at the moment. - Printers. I've never had a linux laptop that just worked regarding scans and printing. Sometimes I works, sometimes (usually) it doesn't. - My otherwise well-supported thinkpad has a crappy broadcomm wifi+bluetooth chipset. It's just not well supported on linux. I've had to stay in a hotel for 2 weeks covid quarantine, I'm glad I had my windows laptop with me, as linux didn't want to connect to their wifi at all. Bridging wifi from my android phone is another workaround I use - Regarding bluetooth, it's bad too. Audio works after a decent amount of manual config (finding the right driver online, the one shipped on ubuntu is the wrong one), but with horrible latency (almost 1sec). My bluetooth mouse is now working without issues, besides a bluetooth systemctl restart from time to time. The bad things about it: - A couple of random BSOD. I have no idea where to even start to debug them. Only 2-3 in 6 months of usage though. - Botched upgrades. This was a bad one, when I bought the laptop, the latest upgrade just didn't work, it would brick the laptop. It seems to be a problem with my ryzen cpu, so the only solution was to reinstall and stop all updates until microsoft fixed it - Upgrades in general, they're shitty, forced, etc... Nothing new here. I use third-party programs to stop the forced upgrades, so at least I have control over that - Autohotkey is required for basic customization, like shortcuts. I'm very specific about my shortcuts (I need my bazillion emacs keybindings to work the same as in linux), but ahk makes it work for me. - Some annoying, but non-critical bugs in WSL2. It might get better with time. - Virtual workspaces are now shipped with windows, but their keybindings suck in a non-fixable way There you go. I'm still a linux guy, I prefer linux and will probably dual boot an ubuntu+i3 once I buy a bigger SSD, but WSL2 makes dev on windows quite painless. All I need for my work is a terminal, emacs and a browser after all.

woodruffw 6y ago
Thank you for the detailed response! I was stung badly by the promise of POSIX on Windows back in the Cygwin era, so it's very possible that I don't fully appreciate just how good/seamless WSL2 is.
- dpayonk 6y ago
  WSL2 has been awesome so far. I just recently decided to buy a surface book instead of a Mac because it felt like Microsoft was embracing linux more while Mac was drifting away. After a month, other than keybindings, I’m very pleased. For me, the python experience made the difference. It’s 1st class with VSCode and remote debugging over WSL.
- shrimp_emoji 6y ago
  I switched to Linux before WSL1 came out (which I heard was awful from people who were using it), so I've never used either. Then I heard WSL2 was far better, and then later that it still has fundamental problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25612962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25612962 (corrupting repos) https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5336 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5336 (no Internet access)
tiew9Vii 6y ago
Interesting you mention WSL2 as a plus. I've used Linux since early 2000's and OSX on the desktop since 2010+. Before that Windows CE, 95 and think Vista or 7 was the last. I was curious about what Windows looks like these days as it's been a decade and also curious about WSL2 as it seems online posts are generally positive over WSL. The surface go / surface line of devices looked interesting for a nsmall, stuff in the bag while traveling doing email/browsing/office type of machine. I was tempted to buy one to see what they are about. At a contracting gig last year I was given a Windows machine. I'm not sure if it was because it wasn't the best and typical corporate laptop specs, or if it was because of the corporate lock-down, installed software, av, and other junk but my eagerness to try modern Windows and WSL2 quickly diapered. I struggled getting docker running, i struggled running docker in the subsystem, i found things where not working in the subsystem, had difficulty with paths etc. In the end the machine went back and I got a mac and was up and running in an hour with full dev environment and everything set up how I like using nix-darwin. Same for the other devs, they where unable to get a working dev environment on windows so sent the machines back for macs. Some of it will certainly be my unfamiliarity but it just didn't seem compelling enough to overcome. Clicking the start menu and seeing ads instead of finding programs was a blatant yes this is windows moment.Even the UI /UX felt old which seems odd given that Microsoft have quite a lot of material out on user interaction and ux research. An interesting observation about modern Microsoft is a lot of the onsite Microsoft Azure employees seem to be using Macs and Microsoft give them the option of running Macs.

woodruffw 6y ago

Thank you for the detailed response! I was stung badly by the promise of POSIX on Windows back in the Cygwin era, so it's very possible that I don't fully appreciate just how good/seamless WSL2 is.

dpayonk 6y ago
WSL2 has been awesome so far. I just recently decided to buy a surface book instead of a Mac because it felt like Microsoft was embracing linux more while Mac was drifting away. After a month, other than keybindings, I’m very pleased. For me, the python experience made the difference. It’s 1st class with VSCode and remote debugging over WSL.
shrimp_emoji 6y ago
I switched to Linux before WSL1 came out (which I heard was awful from people who were using it), so I've never used either. Then I heard WSL2 was far better, and then later that it still has fundamental problems: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25612962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25612962 (corrupting repos) https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5336 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5336 (no Internet access)

tiew9Vii 6y ago

Interesting you mention WSL2 as a plus. I've used Linux since early 2000's and OSX on the desktop since 2010+. Before that Windows CE, 95 and think Vista or 7 was the last. I was curious about what Windows looks like these days as it's been a decade and also curious about WSL2 as it seems online posts are generally positive over WSL. The surface go / surface line of devices looked interesting for a nsmall, stuff in the bag while traveling doing email/browsing/office type of machine. I was tempted to buy one to see what they are about. At a contracting gig last year I was given a Windows machine. I'm not sure if it was because it wasn't the best and typical corporate laptop specs, or if it was because of the corporate lock-down, installed software, av, and other junk but my eagerness to try modern Windows and WSL2 quickly diapered. I struggled getting docker running, i struggled running docker in the subsystem, i found things where not working in the subsystem, had difficulty with paths etc. In the end the machine went back and I got a mac and was up and running in an hour with full dev environment and everything set up how I like using nix-darwin. Same for the other devs, they where unable to get a working dev environment on windows so sent the machines back for macs. Some of it will certainly be my unfamiliarity but it just didn't seem compelling enough to overcome. Clicking the start menu and seeing ads instead of finding programs was a blatant yes this is windows moment.Even the UI /UX felt old which seems odd given that Microsoft have quite a lot of material out on user interaction and ux research. An interesting observation about modern Microsoft is a lot of the onsite Microsoft Azure employees seem to be using Macs and Microsoft give them the option of running Macs.