4 ms·

It's not clear to me what the benefit of this over just running Linux is though.

pelagicAustral 3y ago
In my case, it's the most sane option for Rails development on a Windows environment. My workplace have no love for macOS or Linux distros so I'm bound to Windows 11, I do also work with a lot of Desktop implementations in C# so it half-way makes sense. WSL slow things down quite a bit, starting/stopping a server, deployments, git workflow... Even then still beats having to run things on a VM an it is better that the hell it was to set up dev environments in Windows before (for anything not .NET)
- baq 3y ago
  > WSL slow things down quite a bit, starting/stopping a server, deployments, git workflow... There's zero reason (and has been for quite some time, at least a couple years) for those things to be slow - the trick is to 1) make triple sure you're running WSL2 and 2) never store anything on the Windows drive, keep everything in WSL2 home directory. it's basically native Linux speed then.
  - Mrdarknezz 3y ago
    I made the mistake to store it on the windows drive. When I moved it I was blown out of the water of the performance. I got some insane speeds that I didn't think was possible
    - baq 3y ago
      Exactly - and you can still access it from Windows with \\wsl$\ if you need it.
      - Mrdarknezz 3y ago
        Yeah but if you're a n00b like me and prefer using a git client I had to install it in wsl to be able to use it for some reason
  - pelagicAustral 3y ago
    Ah! thanks for the tips! I just set up a new environment and will be testing speeds for sure, yeah, I was using the /mnt/ path structure to reach the projects from the Windows file system.
baq 3y ago
Graphics drivers and font rendering
- saidinesh5 3y ago
  Maybe just Nvidia drivers? I haven't had to worry about graphics drivers issues in over a decade across my 3-4 AMD/Intel laptops/desktops... As for font rendering.. I'm actually curious what people mean by that.. To me the text in the apps i use: VS Code, the major browsers, vlc looks practically the same between windows and Linux . Terminal - i like my Dracula theme on Yakuake and prefer that too what cmd.exe/powershell provides in windows.. so is it some high dpi monitor thing?
  - switch007 3y ago
    NVIDIA + Linux (Fedora) was /so/ buggy for me I installed Windows. And I dislike Windows, and don't play games I don't remember the NVIDIA drivers being that bad in the past
    - saidinesh5 3y ago
      Yeah, my last experience with Nvidia on Linux was super annoying too. I already made the stupid decision to purchase an Nvidia Gaming Laptop back then (~2012-2013). The thing was bulky and ran super hot with abysmal battery life. On top of that the Nvidia Optimus situation on Linux made me simply disable discrete GPUs back then. That's why i haven't purchased any Nvidia hardware since then. Also, not to start a flamewar here or anything but isn't Fedora like super bleeding edge/and sometimes unstable software generally? I remember them shipping wayland super early... Friends with Nvidia desktops generally used things like Pop OS..
- realusername 3y ago
  Unless you are on a very exotic config, the graphics driver will be fine. And for the font rendering it's a matter of preference, I don't like much the pixelized font rendering on Windows.
master-lincoln 3y ago
Agree, I was quite amused about the article sounding like "Windows is finally usable because it has Linux integration available". I have been doing development (web, mobile and embedded) on Linux for more than 10 years now and always found it awesome.
- vips7L 3y ago
  Native windows is perfectly usable for development. I’ve also been doing it for 10 years on windows and have always found it awesome. The only people who think it’s not usable are the ones who are trying to make it POSIX or have built their code bases on tools that aren’t cross platform.
drcongo 3y ago
Well, this is like Linux, but with adverts all over the operating system. What's not to like?
jasode 3y ago
>It's not clear to me what the benefit of this over just running Linux is though. The benefit is running Windows itself because the user also wants to use other software that runs better on Windows. E.g. DHH mentions one example in Fortnite: >, and did I mention you can actually play AAA games on the PC? That $2,349 Dell ships with an NVIDIA 4070, which is plenty of power to drive everything from Fortnite to Cyberpunk 2077. If Linux is the main host operating system on the computer instead of being a "guest os" such as WSL-Linux or a Linux vm, then one will have to do workarounds for Fortnite: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+fortnite+on+linux https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+fortnite+on+linu... Likewise, NVIDIA 4070 drivers worked on Windows before Linux. If running Windows native software is the main use case, a "Windows machine running a guest Linux os" will be superior usability to the opposite scenario of a "Linux machine running guest Windows os".
tyingq 3y ago
In some corporate environments, having to use MS Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint...while still being able to write code is often the driver. Depends on what you're having to do, but I often have better luck with just using Gitbash and VSCode and some amount of docker via Docker Desktop than I do with WSL.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
  Don't they provide web versions of those?
  - tyingq 3y ago
    They do. They are not quite compatible with the native versions. Sometimes it works fine. Often it does not.
  - kyriakos 3y ago
    Teams is bad as it is. The web version is even worse.
    - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
      I don't want that stuff to be installed on my computer...
kyriakos 3y ago
There is one clear benefit when using windows: Hardware/Driver compatibility (or at least stable drivers for a much larger pool of hardware). So with WSL you get the Linux dev tooling while not having to worry about nVidia drivers or hybrid iGPU/dGPU issues.
pjmlp 3y ago
Everything just works, this has been my setup since 2010, with either VMWare or Virtual Box, WSL makes it one less thing to care about installing.

In my case, it's the most sane option for Rails development on a Windows environment. My workplace have no love for macOS or Linux distros so I'm bound to Windows 11, I do also work with a lot of Desktop implementations in C# so it half-way makes sense. WSL slow things down quite a bit, starting/stopping a server, deployments, git workflow... Even then still beats having to run things on a VM an it is better that the hell it was to set up dev environments in Windows before (for anything not .NET)

baq 3y ago
> WSL slow things down quite a bit, starting/stopping a server, deployments, git workflow... There's zero reason (and has been for quite some time, at least a couple years) for those things to be slow - the trick is to 1) make triple sure you're running WSL2 and 2) never store anything on the Windows drive, keep everything in WSL2 home directory. it's basically native Linux speed then.
- Mrdarknezz 3y ago
  I made the mistake to store it on the windows drive. When I moved it I was blown out of the water of the performance. I got some insane speeds that I didn't think was possible
  - baq 3y ago
    Exactly - and you can still access it from Windows with \\wsl$\ if you need it.
    - Mrdarknezz 3y ago
      Yeah but if you're a n00b like me and prefer using a git client I had to install it in wsl to be able to use it for some reason
- pelagicAustral 3y ago
  Ah! thanks for the tips! I just set up a new environment and will be testing speeds for sure, yeah, I was using the /mnt/ path structure to reach the projects from the Windows file system.

baq 3y ago

Graphics drivers and font rendering

saidinesh5 3y ago
Maybe just Nvidia drivers? I haven't had to worry about graphics drivers issues in over a decade across my 3-4 AMD/Intel laptops/desktops... As for font rendering.. I'm actually curious what people mean by that.. To me the text in the apps i use: VS Code, the major browsers, vlc looks practically the same between windows and Linux . Terminal - i like my Dracula theme on Yakuake and prefer that too what cmd.exe/powershell provides in windows.. so is it some high dpi monitor thing?
- switch007 3y ago
  NVIDIA + Linux (Fedora) was /so/ buggy for me I installed Windows. And I dislike Windows, and don't play games I don't remember the NVIDIA drivers being that bad in the past
  - saidinesh5 3y ago
    Yeah, my last experience with Nvidia on Linux was super annoying too. I already made the stupid decision to purchase an Nvidia Gaming Laptop back then (~2012-2013). The thing was bulky and ran super hot with abysmal battery life. On top of that the Nvidia Optimus situation on Linux made me simply disable discrete GPUs back then. That's why i haven't purchased any Nvidia hardware since then. Also, not to start a flamewar here or anything but isn't Fedora like super bleeding edge/and sometimes unstable software generally? I remember them shipping wayland super early... Friends with Nvidia desktops generally used things like Pop OS..
realusername 3y ago
Unless you are on a very exotic config, the graphics driver will be fine. And for the font rendering it's a matter of preference, I don't like much the pixelized font rendering on Windows.

master-lincoln 3y ago

Agree, I was quite amused about the article sounding like "Windows is finally usable because it has Linux integration available". I have been doing development (web, mobile and embedded) on Linux for more than 10 years now and always found it awesome.

vips7L 3y ago
Native windows is perfectly usable for development. I’ve also been doing it for 10 years on windows and have always found it awesome. The only people who think it’s not usable are the ones who are trying to make it POSIX or have built their code bases on tools that aren’t cross platform.

drcongo 3y ago

Well, this is like Linux, but with adverts all over the operating system. What's not to like?

jasode 3y ago

>It's not clear to me what the benefit of this over just running Linux is though. The benefit is running Windows itself because the user also wants to use other software that runs better on Windows. E.g. DHH mentions one example in Fortnite: >, and did I mention you can actually play AAA games on the PC? That $2,349 Dell ships with an NVIDIA 4070, which is plenty of power to drive everything from Fortnite to Cyberpunk 2077. If Linux is the main host operating system on the computer instead of being a "guest os" such as WSL-Linux or a Linux vm, then one will have to do workarounds for Fortnite: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+fortnite+on+linux https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+fortnite+on+linu... Likewise, NVIDIA 4070 drivers worked on Windows before Linux. If running Windows native software is the main use case, a "Windows machine running a guest Linux os" will be superior usability to the opposite scenario of a "Linux machine running guest Windows os".

tyingq 3y ago

In some corporate environments, having to use MS Teams, Word, Excel, Powerpoint...while still being able to write code is often the driver. Depends on what you're having to do, but I often have better luck with just using Gitbash and VSCode and some amount of docker via Docker Desktop than I do with WSL.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
Don't they provide web versions of those?
- tyingq 3y ago
  They do. They are not quite compatible with the native versions. Sometimes it works fine. Often it does not.
- kyriakos 3y ago
  Teams is bad as it is. The web version is even worse.
  - Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
    I don't want that stuff to be installed on my computer...

kyriakos 3y ago

There is one clear benefit when using windows: Hardware/Driver compatibility (or at least stable drivers for a much larger pool of hardware). So with WSL you get the Linux dev tooling while not having to worry about nVidia drivers or hybrid iGPU/dGPU issues.

pjmlp 3y ago

Everything just works, this has been my setup since 2010, with either VMWare or Virtual Box, WSL makes it one less thing to care about installing.