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I want so badly be a big fan of WSL, but I just can't, I'm hitting too many issues for it to be productive and I had to jump back into a proper Linux environmen

I want so badly be a big fan of WSL, but I just can't, I'm hitting too many issues for it to be productive and I had to jump back into a proper Linux environment... > But they make it really hard to rely on. From random shutdowns, GPU unreliability to data corruption and performance differences with just using Linux directly, I had to move away from it and back to Linux because I felt like I slowly losing my mind troubleshooting these issues. > Latest issue was that the virtual disk file continued to grow beyond 500GB large while Linux still reported that it was just 20% full from the inside. So, reading about things, I gave optimize-vhd a try and boom, full disk file was corrupted. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37308850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37308850 I wish it was working properly, because I have to use Windows for other things anyways and I don't really care about ads because I don't feel like they're getting in the way when I use the OS. But that WSL basically doesn't work properly is such a showstopper.

ndriscoll 3y ago
Yeah I don't understand the love for WSL. Within the first couple weeks of using it, I've run into * Time doesn't stay in sync after sleeping, which breaks package updating. * It doesn't get the DNS servers it should from DHCP, so you have to go manually edit /etc/resolv.conf * The filesystem is super slow, and git commands take multiple seconds. All stuff that can be worked around, but I don't have to deal with this crap when just running Linux, and all Windows gets me is a clunky UI and ads. It's mystifying to me that everyone is somehow capable of managing fleets of Linux servers just fine, but for some reason managing developer Linux workstations is impossible, so we end up with these Rube Goldberg machines.
- NikkiA 3y ago
  The problem I see most often is that WSL causes processor stalls in my other VMs, I'm not sure if it's intentional to force you to use WSL or the Hyper-V VM subsystem exclusively, if it is I can't see how it's a wise move. Enabling Hyper-V also meant that virtualbox completely lost the ability to have a clock that ran properly - each VM was seeing the hardware timer out by 3 seconds every minute, and thus the only fix there was to run ntp every minute. vmware wasn't affected somehow.
- lenova 3y ago
  > The filesystem is super slow, and git commands take multiple seconds. Ugh, this is a known issue in WSL if you try to use git on the host operating system (/mnt/c/Users/path/to/repo)... there are cross-system file system virtualization issues in WSL2 when reading from the Windows hosts. Workaround is to have your git repos within WSL itself (~/my-git-repo) to have native performance.
  - capableweb 3y ago
    All of these workarounds unfortunately adds up, and after a while it's just too much to having to deal with, when you could have just gone straight up for a Linux/Windows dual boot setup and not having to deal with any of those issues at all.
wing-_-nuts 3y ago
It really is a shame. I've wanted to build a gaming pc for years now, but the dev experience is compromised on windows, and the gaming experience is compromised on linux. People on windows will tell me to 'just use WSL', and people on linux will tell me to 'just use proton'. Both are decent, neither are great. I currently have a linux laptop, and a ps5 and both excel at their respective roles
- capableweb 3y ago
  Good ol' dual-booting still works, and I'm currently using it to switch between Windows, Arch Linux and NixOS.
  - wing-_-nuts 3y ago
    Yes, but ideally I'd like a robust fs that I can use for storage and have r/w interop between linux and windows. I hear you can do that with the btrfs windows driver, but I've never tested it
- type0 3y ago
  Don't dual boot, it's not worth it. Just use Windows VM and GPU passtrough, honestly recent Ryzen CPUs are so fast you are not loosing much performance running games in VM (just buy faster RAM).
JohnFen 3y ago
> I want so badly be a big fan of WSL, but I just can't I'm the same. I use WSL daily at work, but it's more of a "better than nothing" sort of thing for me. Every time I use it, I wish I had a real Linux system instead.

ndriscoll 3y ago

Yeah I don't understand the love for WSL. Within the first couple weeks of using it, I've run into * Time doesn't stay in sync after sleeping, which breaks package updating. * It doesn't get the DNS servers it should from DHCP, so you have to go manually edit /etc/resolv.conf * The filesystem is super slow, and git commands take multiple seconds. All stuff that can be worked around, but I don't have to deal with this crap when just running Linux, and all Windows gets me is a clunky UI and ads. It's mystifying to me that everyone is somehow capable of managing fleets of Linux servers just fine, but for some reason managing developer Linux workstations is impossible, so we end up with these Rube Goldberg machines.

NikkiA 3y ago
The problem I see most often is that WSL causes processor stalls in my other VMs, I'm not sure if it's intentional to force you to use WSL or the Hyper-V VM subsystem exclusively, if it is I can't see how it's a wise move. Enabling Hyper-V also meant that virtualbox completely lost the ability to have a clock that ran properly - each VM was seeing the hardware timer out by 3 seconds every minute, and thus the only fix there was to run ntp every minute. vmware wasn't affected somehow.
lenova 3y ago
> The filesystem is super slow, and git commands take multiple seconds. Ugh, this is a known issue in WSL if you try to use git on the host operating system (/mnt/c/Users/path/to/repo)... there are cross-system file system virtualization issues in WSL2 when reading from the Windows hosts. Workaround is to have your git repos within WSL itself (~/my-git-repo) to have native performance.
- capableweb 3y ago
  All of these workarounds unfortunately adds up, and after a while it's just too much to having to deal with, when you could have just gone straight up for a Linux/Windows dual boot setup and not having to deal with any of those issues at all.

wing-_-nuts 3y ago

It really is a shame. I've wanted to build a gaming pc for years now, but the dev experience is compromised on windows, and the gaming experience is compromised on linux. People on windows will tell me to 'just use WSL', and people on linux will tell me to 'just use proton'. Both are decent, neither are great. I currently have a linux laptop, and a ps5 and both excel at their respective roles

capableweb 3y ago
Good ol' dual-booting still works, and I'm currently using it to switch between Windows, Arch Linux and NixOS.
- wing-_-nuts 3y ago
  Yes, but ideally I'd like a robust fs that I can use for storage and have r/w interop between linux and windows. I hear you can do that with the btrfs windows driver, but I've never tested it
type0 3y ago
Don't dual boot, it's not worth it. Just use Windows VM and GPU passtrough, honestly recent Ryzen CPUs are so fast you are not loosing much performance running games in VM (just buy faster RAM).

JohnFen 3y ago

> I want so badly be a big fan of WSL, but I just can't I'm the same. I use WSL daily at work, but it's more of a "better than nothing" sort of thing for me. Every time I use it, I wish I had a real Linux system instead.