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I love WSL1. With WSL2 and the move to Hyper-V, I just decided to drop WSL and manage my own VM manually. I use the remote development tools on VSCode that pow

I love WSL1. With WSL2 and the move to Hyper-V, I just decided to drop WSL and manage my own VM manually. I use the remote development tools on VSCode that power WSL to make everything feel like it's running on the host directly, just like WSL2. This way I don't have any confusion born from it pretending not to be a VM. No issues with network port mappings, dns stuff, who owns what binary and how does it execute? When is WSL2 running and when is it not? etc etc Ultimately, I would rather run Linux on my desktop as a daily driver but the desktop experience is not quite there yet for me to live (at least) 8 hours a day in. Gnome 40 looks great though, can't wait too see what the future holds. My dream is running Linux as a daily driver where the UI is more polished than MacOS. Windows will run in a VM and will be used for API calls for playing games (I wonder if we will ever see some kind of GPU sharing for virtualisation).

cprecioso 5y ago
About your last point, this was posted a couple weeks ago on here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27870399 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27870399
dgan 5y ago
I don't understand claims "desktop experience is not there yet". What do you even need so specific? Care to explain? I tend to think it's more of people's problem at that point than linux desktop experience problem
- apatheticonion 5y ago
  It's not _functionally_ problematic, just aesthetically. Mostly it's just that I never go a full day without performing some kind of maintenance on my Linux desktop environment to try to get it looking right, and it never looks right. I also run multiple monitors, so that aspect tends to throw in some extra jank. At this point, running Gnome completely unmodified has been the most success I have had - but even Gnome 40 has some questionable design decisions. Windows is a poor example of polish but I feel there's a lot we can learn from by looking at MacOS's desktop environment. Having used each for significant amounts of time (years) and currently living on Windows, MacOS really takes the prize for the "nicest place to live but worst landlord".
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    I go years without "performing some kind of maintenance on my Linux desktop environment". I can't even imagine what you would even be trying to fool with, and it not working.
RamRodification 5y ago
> I wonder if we will ever see some kind of GPU sharing for virtualisation Hasn't this been solved for some time now? Or am I misunderstanding what you want? I remember seeing a few articles about using this for gaming on Windows VMs on Linux hosts. I haven't jumped in though so maybe it's not what I think it is. https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GPU_passthrough_with_libvirt_qemu_kvm https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GPU_passthrough_with_libvirt_qe... I think it's also definitely in use for compute stuff on VMs in professional environments. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/deploy/deploy-graphics-devices-using-remotefx-vgpu https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualizati... Edit: Ah, maybe sharing a GPU between a host and VMs isn't possible at the moment. Only pass-through and maybe sharing between the VMs?
- apatheticonion 5y ago
  I could be wrong but I think you can only pass through an entire GPU as long as it's unused on the host. Sharing a used GPU, in the same way we can share a CPU with no performance loss via Intel Hyper v, is not possible.
  - RamRodification 5y ago
    Yeah, just edited my post with that point. I think you're right.
  - funcDropShadow 5y ago
    Sharing a CPU with no performance loss isn't possible either. The amount of CPU loss varies dramatically by the exact virtualisation stack used and by the application running on top of it, but it is very clearly observable.
    - apatheticonion 5y ago
      Are you sure? I am not sure if Geekbench is a valid benchmark but I have an AMD 5900x. Running it in Windows (host) I have a lower score than I get in VMWare running Ubuntu (guest).
raman162 5y ago
What's missing from the Linux Desktop experience for you? I currently use all three operating systems on a weekly basis, Ubuntu with i3 (a window tiling manager) is my daily driver. Everytime I switch to windows or Mac os, it always feels like a downgrade for me because I can't replicate the tiling experience. The one thing I love about mac, is the trackpad experience, I wish windows and Linux could get to that level.
- hughrr 5y ago
  For me, reliability. Literally I have to futz with it so often. I moved from a Mac recently to a T495 thinkpad with Radeon in it which is supposedly fully supported by Ubuntu. Turns out that depends on what day of the week it is. Constant GPU problems. I have considered switching back to windows.
- morrbo 5y ago
  It's funny you mention tiling because honestly one of the biggest things preventing me from moving to linux full time is the lack of any decent window manager like https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzone... where I can arbitrarily draw/resize zones and drag and drop/snap windows on to them. Every window manager I've used in Linux, and gnome extension, all try and force you to have non resizable areas, areas of equal proportions, don't support snapping etc. And needed serious foo for moving a window about. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear it
  - Fnoord 5y ago
    Powertoys is amazing, it allows you to run your Windows machine more like Linux/Mac. Awake is like Amphetamine on macOS. FancyZones is like a tiling window manager. Keyboard Manager allows you to easily rebind a key such as Caps Lock. Power Rename allows you to rename based on regexp. Powertoys Run is basically a light version of Alfred. File Explorer addons allows you to for example preview Markdown (.md) files. Color Picker saves me the hassle of making a screenshot and then uploading it to a website to figure out the hex value (or having to open up a bloated image editor). Useful for (even simple) image editing, web design, etc. I'm sure I missed some utilities but these are the features I use.
grey_earthling 5y ago
If your only experience with GNOME is Ubuntu, give Fedora a try. The parts are 95% identical but (in my opinion) the user experience is a lot more coherent, because it's all designed together and nothing's bolted on.

cprecioso 5y ago

About your last point, this was posted a couple weeks ago on here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27870399 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27870399

dgan 5y ago

I don't understand claims "desktop experience is not there yet". What do you even need so specific? Care to explain? I tend to think it's more of people's problem at that point than linux desktop experience problem

apatheticonion 5y ago
It's not _functionally_ problematic, just aesthetically. Mostly it's just that I never go a full day without performing some kind of maintenance on my Linux desktop environment to try to get it looking right, and it never looks right. I also run multiple monitors, so that aspect tends to throw in some extra jank. At this point, running Gnome completely unmodified has been the most success I have had - but even Gnome 40 has some questionable design decisions. Windows is a poor example of polish but I feel there's a lot we can learn from by looking at MacOS's desktop environment. Having used each for significant amounts of time (years) and currently living on Windows, MacOS really takes the prize for the "nicest place to live but worst landlord".
- ncmncm 5y ago
  I go years without "performing some kind of maintenance on my Linux desktop environment". I can't even imagine what you would even be trying to fool with, and it not working.

RamRodification 5y ago

> I wonder if we will ever see some kind of GPU sharing for virtualisation Hasn't this been solved for some time now? Or am I misunderstanding what you want? I remember seeing a few articles about using this for gaming on Windows VMs on Linux hosts. I haven't jumped in though so maybe it's not what I think it is. https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GPU_passthrough_with_libvirt_qemu_kvm https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GPU_passthrough_with_libvirt_qe... I think it's also definitely in use for compute stuff on VMs in professional environments. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/deploy/deploy-graphics-devices-using-remotefx-vgpu https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualizati... Edit: Ah, maybe sharing a GPU between a host and VMs isn't possible at the moment. Only pass-through and maybe sharing between the VMs?

apatheticonion 5y ago
I could be wrong but I think you can only pass through an entire GPU as long as it's unused on the host. Sharing a used GPU, in the same way we can share a CPU with no performance loss via Intel Hyper v, is not possible.
- RamRodification 5y ago
  Yeah, just edited my post with that point. I think you're right.
- funcDropShadow 5y ago
  Sharing a CPU with no performance loss isn't possible either. The amount of CPU loss varies dramatically by the exact virtualisation stack used and by the application running on top of it, but it is very clearly observable.
  - apatheticonion 5y ago
    Are you sure? I am not sure if Geekbench is a valid benchmark but I have an AMD 5900x. Running it in Windows (host) I have a lower score than I get in VMWare running Ubuntu (guest).

raman162 5y ago

What's missing from the Linux Desktop experience for you? I currently use all three operating systems on a weekly basis, Ubuntu with i3 (a window tiling manager) is my daily driver. Everytime I switch to windows or Mac os, it always feels like a downgrade for me because I can't replicate the tiling experience. The one thing I love about mac, is the trackpad experience, I wish windows and Linux could get to that level.

hughrr 5y ago
For me, reliability. Literally I have to futz with it so often. I moved from a Mac recently to a T495 thinkpad with Radeon in it which is supposedly fully supported by Ubuntu. Turns out that depends on what day of the week it is. Constant GPU problems. I have considered switching back to windows.
morrbo 5y ago
It's funny you mention tiling because honestly one of the biggest things preventing me from moving to linux full time is the lack of any decent window manager like https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzones https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fancyzone... where I can arbitrarily draw/resize zones and drag and drop/snap windows on to them. Every window manager I've used in Linux, and gnome extension, all try and force you to have non resizable areas, areas of equal proportions, don't support snapping etc. And needed serious foo for moving a window about. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear it
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Powertoys is amazing, it allows you to run your Windows machine more like Linux/Mac. Awake is like Amphetamine on macOS. FancyZones is like a tiling window manager. Keyboard Manager allows you to easily rebind a key such as Caps Lock. Power Rename allows you to rename based on regexp. Powertoys Run is basically a light version of Alfred. File Explorer addons allows you to for example preview Markdown (.md) files. Color Picker saves me the hassle of making a screenshot and then uploading it to a website to figure out the hex value (or having to open up a bloated image editor). Useful for (even simple) image editing, web design, etc. I'm sure I missed some utilities but these are the features I use.

grey_earthling 5y ago

If your only experience with GNOME is Ubuntu, give Fedora a try. The parts are 95% identical but (in my opinion) the user experience is a lot more coherent, because it's all designed together and nothing's bolted on.