5 ms·

Now that WSLg support (https://github.com/microsoft/wslg https://github.com/microsoft/wslg) has landed in a release version of windows, another approach to this

Now that WSLg support (https://github.com/microsoft/wslg https://github.com/microsoft/wslg) has landed in a release version of windows, another approach to this is to create new WSL distros for specific tasks, and run browsers from them. Whilst it's a VM, I've found start-up time for WSL instances to be pretty quick, and it's pretty easy to create and clone a template VM (one approach https://raesene.github.io/blog/2020/05/31/Custom_Pentest_Distributions_With_WSL2/ https://raesene.github.io/blog/2020/05/31/Custom_Pentest_Dis... )

mkl 5y ago
What is the RAM usage like? Does it reserve a big block?
- raesene9 5y ago
  Doesn't seem to bad, but I'm running on a desktop with 64GB, so I tend not to notice :) A quick check there shows the vmmem process on my machine is sitting at 1.3GB with one WSL distribution started, which doesn't seem too bad.
easygenes 5y ago
I tried doing some full-screen 3D engine development in SDL through WSL2 early this year, and stood up an X server for it. It didn't go well, so I blew away the WSL and tried running VMware Workstation 16. That was okay, but performance was surprisingly poor. I did some Googling and came to suspect that Hyper-V was the culprit. It was difficult, but I managed to extricate Hyper-V from my system and run the VMware Hypervisor instead. Performance is much better now and I don't have any complaints. Now I'm wondering how this graphical WSL setup compares though. Any experience using VMware Workstation to compare it?
- pjmlp 5y ago
  I have used SDL on Windows with VC++ since 20 years now, so why bother at all with WSL?
  - easygenes 5y ago
    I do basically all my development in Linux. I just wanted to be able to also do some of that work on a particular Windows system sometimes.
    - pjmlp 5y ago
      Fair enough, although cmake + vcpkg + vc work just fine, it even does up to C17 if that is more your thing (minus optional annexes).

mkl 5y ago

What is the RAM usage like? Does it reserve a big block?

raesene9 5y ago
Doesn't seem to bad, but I'm running on a desktop with 64GB, so I tend not to notice :) A quick check there shows the vmmem process on my machine is sitting at 1.3GB with one WSL distribution started, which doesn't seem too bad.

easygenes 5y ago

I tried doing some full-screen 3D engine development in SDL through WSL2 early this year, and stood up an X server for it. It didn't go well, so I blew away the WSL and tried running VMware Workstation 16. That was okay, but performance was surprisingly poor. I did some Googling and came to suspect that Hyper-V was the culprit. It was difficult, but I managed to extricate Hyper-V from my system and run the VMware Hypervisor instead. Performance is much better now and I don't have any complaints. Now I'm wondering how this graphical WSL setup compares though. Any experience using VMware Workstation to compare it?

pjmlp 5y ago
I have used SDL on Windows with VC++ since 20 years now, so why bother at all with WSL?
- easygenes 5y ago
  I do basically all my development in Linux. I just wanted to be able to also do some of that work on a particular Windows system sometimes.
  - pjmlp 5y ago
    Fair enough, although cmake + vcpkg + vc work just fine, it even does up to C17 if that is more your thing (minus optional annexes).