7 ms·

My best choice was going back to Linux. Everything is simple and fast. It's difficult to say if this improves my efficiency, but I feel a lot better. Do yourse

• lostlogin 5y ago
  Running it in a VM and then connecting to that VM via VNC and going full screen was a revelation to me. Even over wifi it wasn’t that far off. Completely recommend.
  • acmecorps 5y ago
    Running it in a remote VM somewhere on the cloud you mean?
    • lostlogin 5y ago
      Dirtier than that. I have an addiction to Intel Nucs, and put Esxi or Proxmox on them. You can get 10gbe connections with a little effort and then it’s brilliant, but wifi is surprisingly usable.
• dgellow 5y ago
  What is not “real Linux” about WSL?
  • a-dub 5y ago
    the windows part.
    • dgellow 5y ago
      WSL runs a standard Linux side by side with windows. There are no “Windows part” overlapping with it. A way to think about it is that you have two system that share devices and file systems.
      • a-dub 5y ago
        the windows part is the windows that is running as the host os. happy to run windows in a vm though, that way you can stop it when it starts doing weird windows things.
  • darthrupert 5y ago
    Come on.
    • dgellow 5y ago
      Any argument to develop?
  • alichapman 5y ago
    * You can't run your distro of choice unless you build it yourself * Lots of programs don't work properly (citation needed, can't remember specifics) * You can only run command line programs, although I understand this could be different in Windows 11 My last job mandated windows laptops so I used WSL for a couple of months before I got too frustrated and just ran a virtualbox VM.
    • DeathArrow 5y ago
      In the article it says clearly that you can run the distro of your choice using WSL.
      • testermelon 5y ago
        Can it run Linux From Scratch (LFS)? It seems like it could.
        • shanoaice 5y ago
          Yes sure it can, create a usable (chrootable) Linux From Scratch rootfs tarball and import it using wsl --import, and everything should be fine. Though don't forget to remove the kernels because WSL don't load them, instead WSL uses a custom kernel shipped with the Windows system.
      • withinboredom 5y ago
        And building a custom one is easy. I have Gentoo running in WSL with no fuss.
      • gertrunde 5y ago
        The distro of your choice from the small pool that you are given to choose from. It's not a completely unrestricted choice. That pool includes Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora and a few others if I remember correctly, although it may have expanded since. I'm not sure how straightforward rolling your own is.
        • 5y ago
  • GhettoComputers 5y ago
    What makes real Linux by your criteria? Linux the kernel is easy driverless installs of hardware, windows isn’t driverless.
  • cerved 5y ago
    mounting network drives is a pain
  • phendrenad2 5y ago
    It is "real linux". Or I should say "real desktop Linux". Most people who don't like it for some reason are trying to use it like a server.
  • apatheticonion 5y ago
    Yeah I just use VMWare on Windows and call it a day
  • coder91 5y ago
    I think you cannot run X-Window applications out of the box
  • michaelmrose 5y ago
    Any virtualization solution has the complexity of the sum of the environments being run simultaneously, the virtualization solution, and the surface where all 3 interact. Furthermore the guest solution inherently deals with the system at a higher level wherein you are stuck with how the host handles lower level aspects. Such a system is simultaneously worse and more complicated as a necessary price for running both native windows applications and linux ones. In most cases you would be better off just running Windows or running actual Linux. For example my Linux system has a ZFS root filesystem which provides a lot of interesting features including the ability to boot a prior version of my install at startup, along with 37 other useful things. Running a linux VM with that feature wouldn't magically port this functionality to the rest of the system. My Linux system is vastly less likely to fall victim to a cryptolocker or other malware situation but running a vm under my Windows desktop wouldn't deliver this benefit. My Linux system handles virtual desktops per monitor making it easy to swap one monitor at a time to a different workspace or all together if I please. Again neither running an app via a compatibility layer nor a fullscreen VM would provide this functionality. WSL is Linux light without most of the interesting features and able to be withdrawn any given year by Microsoft. Worse it could be extended in ways that depend on windows features in a classic Microsoft move.
  • shanoaice 5y ago
    One of the most frustrating thing is that WSL is not a booted Linux. Systemd and other things don't work out of the box even in WSL2. In WSL1 it is almost impossible to make Systemd work, and in WSL2 a wrapper is needed to create a SUID 1 (if I am not wrong) environment to emulate a booted environment. Other than this, the kernel used by WSL2 is a custom, Microsoft-tailored LTS version which may cause some problems if some program rely on very new syscalls.
  • rizalp 5y ago
    tmpfs is mapped to filesystem, so if you need to have tmpfs mount in docker, the performance will be a lot slower https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64401190/can-i-use-docker-tmpfs-in-wsl2-for-running-docker-containers-on-ram https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64401190/can-i-use-docke...
  • dgellow 5y ago
    People are voting me down but it’s mostly from misinformation. WSL runs standard Linux distributions, it’s the real deal, not an imitation or anything that could be considered bad. If you face issues with it it’s mostly because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the setup (for example the person trying to run systemd…), not because it isn’t a „real Linux“.
    • cerved 5y ago
      it runs a modified kernel in a VM and it makes some basic things like mounting suck and IO slooow
      • dgellow 5y ago
        That's exactly what I mean by misinformed. WSL 2 isn't using a simple virtual machine the way it is generally understood. It is instead using a lightweight VM using Hyper-V, there is no booting time. IO in itself isn't slow if you move files to the Linux FS. What is slow is the communication between Windows <—> Linux filesystems. Edit: regarding the custom kernel, you can create your own if you want, nothing is blocking you from doing so https://kumekay.com/compiling-custom-kernel-for-wsl2/ https://kumekay.com/compiling-custom-kernel-for-wsl2/. Microsoft's kernel is also available on github: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.
        • cerved 5y ago
          I know and I was referring to the windows <--> wsl IO It's nice to be able to run Linux in windows but it's like driving a Ferrari inside a Honda. You do it because its nicer than context switching when you have to drive the Honda, not because it's like driving an actual Ferrari
• Datagenerator 5y ago
  Also, for more privacy. Microsoft doesn't have to constantly see what you are doing. They got GitHub and O365 with OneDrive integrated in all the big companies, way too much power already..
• GhettoComputers 5y ago
  Why did you leave it in the first place?
  • darthrupert 5y ago
    One employer had an Apple-only policy which initially forced me into that world, and then I decided to test the Apple ecosystem out. For several years. It was ok, the level of integration and hardware quality being even excellent, but overall Linux is a better set of compromises for me.
• apatheticonion 5y ago
  I am waiting for two things; Better DE UX and graphics card sharing for VMs in consumer cards before I move full time to Linux. Gnome 41 looks compelling and by the time consumer cards can be shared with VMs (for gaming, VR and that sort of thing), it might be as good as MacOS's desktop environment. I can't wait to ditch Windows full time. It's such a confused mess of an OS.
• DeathArrow 5y ago
  I used Linux since 2000. While I made countless tries to make it usable as a desktop, I had been forced to recognize long time ago that for me it isn't a good enough experience. It alway needed lots of time to configure things to make it half decent, the configuration would broke from time to time. Some software which I want to use either runs poorly using Wine, either can't be run at all. I am much more comfortable using Windows as a desktop and WSL has eliminated the need to dual boot or use a Linux VM.
  • raffraffraff 5y ago
    I've been using xfce for about 10 years, and recently I've stopped customising it. I don't care about the theme, backgrounds etc. All I do is configured a single panel on the top of the screen and install plank. I have a few keyboard shortcuts for window tiling, and that's it. I haven't used Windows in a long time, so I'll be honest and say "I don't know what I'm missing", but I'm willing to bet that it ain't much, especially in return for what I get out of Linux. Maybe I should give it a go?
  • ForHackernews 5y ago
    Isn't WSL v2 another flavour of Linux VM?
    • DeathArrow 5y ago
      Sure it is. But it is better integrated with Windows Desktop. I don't have to start and manage the VM. It's seamless.
  • erhk 5y ago
    A lot has changed even in the past few years. The small bits of windows software which I was bound to is now covered by things like lutris
  • bshipp 5y ago
    I also used system for a number of activities that are unavailable in Linux and rely on WSL to give me a reasonable facsimile to a nix box. I loved the new WSL2 upgrades but rolled back because I simply couldn't do the rest of my work as quickly in Windows 11. Forcing the grouping of apps on the Taskbar was major productivity hit for me, as was the simplified context menu in Explorer.
• pjmlp 5y ago
  The real thing still has lots of issues, specially on laptops. Using Linux distributions since 1995. And I really don't get WSL, other than Windows trying to cater to the macOS crowd. I have been using VMWare since 2010, when I need Linux on the laptop and have never felt I need something else. For me the only thing I would get from WSL is not having to fight with IT for VMWare licenses.
• zerocount 5y ago
  I agree. I use seperate computers for each operating system I use; which is currently Windows 10 and FreeBSD. I don't use MacOS much any more and Linux seemed to be edging closer towards Windows, so FreeBSD brought me back into a more traditional Unix world with TWM and command lines. I enjoy it.
  • cerved 5y ago
    FreeBSD is nice but I really miss some GNU stuff
    • vermaden 5y ago
      If you miss Docker then suggesting You the Jails here would not help but if you miss typical GNU commands then you can install them like that: # pkg install coreutils Now you have all GNU utulities with 'g' prefix: % pkg info -l coreutils | grep bin /usr/local/bin/g[ /usr/local/bin/gb2sum /usr/local/bin/gbase32 /usr/local/bin/gbase64 /usr/local/bin/gbasename /usr/local/bin/gbasenc /usr/local/bin/gcat /usr/local/bin/gchcon /usr/local/bin/gchgrp /usr/local/bin/gchmod /usr/local/bin/gchown /usr/local/bin/gchroot /usr/local/bin/gcksum /usr/local/bin/gcomm /usr/local/bin/gcp /usr/local/bin/gcsplit /usr/local/bin/gcut /usr/local/bin/gdate /usr/local/bin/gdd /usr/local/bin/gdf /usr/local/bin/gdir /usr/local/bin/gdircolors /usr/local/bin/gdirname /usr/local/bin/gdu /usr/local/bin/gecho /usr/local/bin/genv /usr/local/bin/gexpand /usr/local/bin/gexpr /usr/local/bin/gfactor /usr/local/bin/gfalse /usr/local/bin/gfmt /usr/local/bin/gfold /usr/local/bin/ggroups /usr/local/bin/ghead /usr/local/bin/ghostid /usr/local/bin/gid /usr/local/bin/ginstall /usr/local/bin/gjoin /usr/local/bin/gkill /usr/local/bin/glink /usr/local/bin/gln /usr/local/bin/glogname /usr/local/bin/gls /usr/local/bin/gmd5sum /usr/local/bin/gmkdir /usr/local/bin/gmkfifo /usr/local/bin/gmknod /usr/local/bin/gmktemp /usr/local/bin/gmv /usr/local/bin/gnice /usr/local/bin/gnl /usr/local/bin/gnohup /usr/local/bin/gnproc /usr/local/bin/gnumfmt /usr/local/bin/gnustat /usr/local/bin/god /usr/local/bin/gpaste /usr/local/bin/gpathchk /usr/local/bin/gpinky /usr/local/bin/gpr /usr/local/bin/gprintenv /usr/local/bin/gprintf /usr/local/bin/gptx /usr/local/bin/gpwd /usr/local/bin/greadlink /usr/local/bin/grealpath /usr/local/bin/grm /usr/local/bin/grmdir /usr/local/bin/gruncon /usr/local/bin/gseq /usr/local/bin/gsha1sum /usr/local/bin/gsha224sum /usr/local/bin/gsha256sum /usr/local/bin/gsha384sum /usr/local/bin/gsha512sum /usr/local/bin/gshred /usr/local/bin/gshuf /usr/local/bin/gsleep /usr/local/bin/gsort /usr/local/bin/gsplit /usr/local/bin/gstdbuf /usr/local/bin/gstty /usr/local/bin/gsum /usr/local/bin/gsync /usr/local/bin/gtac /usr/local/bin/gtail /usr/local/bin/gtee /usr/local/bin/gtest /usr/local/bin/gtimeout /usr/local/bin/gtouch /usr/local/bin/gtr /usr/local/bin/gtrue /usr/local/bin/gtruncate /usr/local/bin/gtsort /usr/local/bin/gtty /usr/local/bin/guname /usr/local/bin/gunexpand /usr/local/bin/guniq /usr/local/bin/gunlink /usr/local/bin/guptime /usr/local/bin/gusers /usr/local/bin/gvdir /usr/local/bin/gwc /usr/local/bin/gwho /usr/local/bin/gwhoami /usr/local/bin/gyes
• gghhzzgghhzz 5y ago
  I've tried. I've been on fedora for years but things just break. The sound breaks, the video breaks, with the latest release VScode and Teams broke. Also I've two graphics cards and one has been unusable for 6 months.
  • beowulfey 5y ago
    If you don’t like Fedora, perhaps try a different distro. Fedora’s commitment to free and open software has the downside of making proprietary hardware less reliable. From my own experience I would recommend Ubuntu or Manjaro. Those break rarely, if ever. It is hard to characterize linux distros in broad terms because they all take such different approaches — two could be as similar as Windows 10 vs 8, or as different as Windows vs Mac!
  • cerved 5y ago
    Teams breaking sounds like a feature
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]