[pssdbt]

Curious, what does Windows bring to the table that someone would prefer it over just Linux? I did the whole development with WSL2 thing for a bit, and it sort of worked OK, but then I setup dual boot and it's so much nicer to have a minimal WM / lighter OS / Windows out of the way.

[shados]

I can think of a few things. First, you get Windows for everything else (if you use the machine for personal stuff, gaming, need Office desktop apps, if you need Photoshop, etc).

You get a lot of that on Mac though (well, less so on the gaming front, but Macs have some apps that aren't on Windows too). But that's "real" Linux, so you don't have to spend time installing GNU tooling or fighting with brew.

Dual booting can get annoying, because you have to, well, reboot.

You don't have to worry about hardware. Linux has come a long way, but there's still the random peripherical that doesn't work, or some where the configuration software is Windows only. It's pretty easy to avoid hardware that won't work with Linux, but in this world you don't even have to worry about that. Especially relevant in the desktop space where you have to look at every component.

WSL2 also has some interesting benefits, like being able to install a couple of different distros, or wipe out and start over in a few seconds if you screw things up. It's kind of the docker experience without docker.

In the corporate world, it also means not having to convince your employer to get a Linux install they'll support. The company I work for only allows Windows or Macs. Sure, I've worked at big companies where after some back and forth with IT we could get Linux on the PC machines, but it's nice not even have to go through the hoops.

There's some drawbacks: interop between the WSL2 file system and the Windows one works fantastic, but it's FREAKISHLY SLOW. If you're trying to git clone a big repo or npm install a big library and you're crossing boundaries between the two system, you're not going to be happy (as long as you stay within the WSL world you're fine though).

GUI apps are an issue. It's pretty easy to get most apps working using a Windows compatible X Server, but hardware acceleration is an issue. It looks like it might be possible to get working, but I sure as hell haven't been able to. The team is working on an official way to run GUI apps without going the X Server forwarding path, but it's not there yet. For now it works fine for simple things, like terminals and text editors, but trying to use Google Maps in Firefox is simply not useable (but it does work!).

I'm one of those weird people who actually likes Windows, and for 99% of my development use cases, Windows + WSL2 let's me do everything I need with zero compromise, and without having to reboot all the time. I can have a Windows-only game running with my Linux terminal open to do some development while I'm waiting for a group in my favorite MMO. Docker + WSL2 is great too.

[honkycat]

I cannot improve on this answer, totally nailed it.

I would like to emphasize the fact that I can get a windows machine and run WSL on it, and not get a bunch of eye-rolls from my IT director.

Additionally: Linux laptops are pretty OK, but Windows power profiles and power management make battery life on a windows machine MUCH better.

[throw0101a]

> First, you get Windows for everything else (if you use the machine for personal stuff, gaming, need Office desktop apps, if you need Photoshop, etc).

Does that include all the phone-home stuff and ads as well?

I only run Windows (10) on a work laptop, and I'm guessing it's the 'Enterprise' edition, so all of that is not present. I've heard that there's a lot of intrusive garbage in the home-oriented editions: is that accurate?

(I sysadmin, so dog food Linux on my workstation.)

Edit: why the downvotes? As someone who runs an Helpdesk/IT-managed Windows laptop I have no idea what the state of the consumer Windows sphere is. The parent lists many good things: are there any bad things worth mentioning?

[eddiecalzone]

> You get a lot of that on Mac though (well, less so on the gaming front, but Macs have some apps that aren't on Windows too). But that's "real" Linux, so you don't have to spend time installing GNU tooling or fighting with brew.

So instead I can run IntelliJ under WSL2? Nope, not until there's a performant X server. Ok, so under Windows, pointed at my Linux filesystem? Wouldn't there be dos2unix file format issues there? And it sounds like it's painfully slow for now until they fix the networking.

But this is somehow better than having to "brew install" a few things? I'm very eager to try this out, but I think WSL3 might be a better starting point.

[pssdbt]

Very good points! Rebooting is so fast these days it isn't an issue, but I also only use Windows for gaming so I'm not rebooting a ton (twice a day at most). As far as Linux gaming has come it's still not there yet.

Incompatible hardware/software are definitely a real problem that probably affect a large enough percentage of people unfortunately.

[fomine3]

Really well-written writeup. It would be suitable to pin for WSL2 newcomers.

[thrownaway954]

it's not just windows per say, the fact that you can have multiple linux installations without going through the hassle of setting up something like vmware or virtualbox (with all of their quirks) is such a timesaver.

[rbanffy]

It's kind of trivial to do that with Docker, either on Linux or on a Mac. On Linux you also have KVM and, on Ubuntu, you have LXC.

[swiley]

It helps remind you to stand up and drink water every other week.

[extralego]

For me, the answer is dispiriting: Photoshop and Illustrator.

There is no other way to have a standard Linux distro and Photoshop on the same workstation without some far out hacks.

[pssdbt]

For sure. For Adobe products I would be all Windows/Mac.