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u/ChadQuaza 3d ago
i thought most wsl users are people who use linux at home but are forced to use windows for work
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u/Mooks79 3d ago
Can confirm.
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u/afedosu 3d ago
I confirm your confirmation. I requested an option to use a bare metal Linux in my company. Got a lot of push back...
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u/nonono_imnothatguy 3d ago
I can confirm you confirming the confirmation.
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u/SDG_Den 3d ago
Im not even allowed to use WSL...
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u/Advanced-Produce-103 2d ago
Let me guess, your company uses laptops, it encrypt everything using default encryption that doesnt have acceleration on your CPU, so your gear is ALWAYS overheating?
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u/bl4k001 3d ago
CS student here, many use WSL for courses like networking
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u/billystein25 3d ago
They recommended that we use WSL for Linux stuff like compiling C. I really didn't like WSL and I like Visual Studio even less so what I ended up doing was connecting to our uni server via ssh (we all have an account on that server).
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u/Proman4713 2d ago
I'd agree with you if my internet wasn't trash and SSH would be terrible
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u/StunningChef3117 1d ago
Hey i dont know if it could help but maybe try mosh it is supposed to be more reliable than ssh on unreliable networks
Disclaimer: i have not used it and do not know of its maintenance status but
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u/Pristine_Pick823 3d ago
This is my experience. I’ve been called a wizard and side eyed by administration for sorting out basic filename batch issues with wls terminal once. There was probably a similar solution with powershell, but who wants to use that?
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u/ApatheistHeretic 2d ago
I hate powershell syntax. I can't be the only person..
I used to dislike Bash.. in comparison, bash is like a calm cool breeze..
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u/Melodic_coala101 🍥 Debian too difficult 3d ago edited 3d ago
Can confirm, but in reverse: I develop linux-based embedded software at work and use exclusively linux at work (of course, in vim (btw)). And when I come home, I game on windows, because I'm kinda tired of finetuning audio drivers, vulkan, proton, etc., and just want to do some native windows gaming and use good old photoshop and a working out of the box equalizer and wallpaper engine w/out random crashes. And if I want some linux syntax/custom commands, that PowerShell doesn't provide (and it provides a lot of things, and its new terminal app is imo amazing), I just go in wsl.
And no, I don't want to dual boot.
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u/DaRealGladi8r 3d ago
I'm in a similar situation. My primary home PC is Windows. Work is Linux, my work VMs are mainly Linux, but I need Windows machines too.
I'm not gonna deal with dual booting. I just wanna play my games and pray that Steam doesn't turn me into a sailor of the seven seas.
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u/Illustrious_Seesaw49 3d ago edited 3d ago
Absolutely, dual boot option is so annoying. I don't want to have to reboot my PC when I feel like to switch from dev to gaming (or other way)
Gaming on Linux is becoming greater and greater but big games are still unavailable on Linux so until they are I will remain using wsl because it's the best option to merge both
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u/eanat 3d ago
too relatable. to use unix tools on Windows, WSL is only decent way to do that. (We have Cygwin too but it's kinda too clunky sometimes, and has may huge problems especially caused from Windows file system.) However, I recently switched almost all codes for working from shell to Python so I can run it on Windows natively tho.
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u/niceandBulat 3d ago
Yup....most are. I use WSL because it makes development much less painful on Windows.
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u/BirdFluLol 3d ago
Maybe some but the overwhelming majority of cases it's work provided laptops with windows, but developing code for a Linux production environment. All well and good to say that Linux could theoretically be supported for a workforce, but for large enterprises where 99% of employees need windows because it's what they know, the 1% that simply need a Unix environment to write code in are much easier to manage through group policy by allowing those users to install wsl environments.
So, at least in my experience, it's not about user preference - it's about what can be managed at scale by an IT department. Microsoft provides the tools to do that, whether or not those tools are actually any good (almost universally despised by IT admins afaik) is almost irrelevant. When it came down to it, Microsoft saw they could potentially lose enterprise seats to Linux development environments, so they made a pretty compelling compromise.
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u/diegotbn 3d ago
Yup.
At home: Arch, Debian, Bazzite.
At work: Windows 1, but do all my tasks in WSL2 Debian. The other option was a MacBook. No thanks.
Also- WSL was how I learned Linux in the first place. I actually give MS a lot of credit in that regard. When I learned to code it was in WSL.
WSL isn't "true Linux" yeah. But it has its place. And it's a gateway to getting people over to real Linux like me now.
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u/mooscimol 2d ago
How it is not true Linux? Linux is a kernel and WSL2 uses a Linux kernel. It might be a not full Linux experience, but it is Linux.
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u/OcelotMadness 3d ago
As someone with a windows work machine with WSL2 installed this feels unironically pretty true.
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u/AtlasJan Not in the sudoers file. 3d ago
I'm using a wintendo setup because I already was using windows. I main archoids everywhere else.
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u/True_tomato_soup 🍥 Debian too difficult 3d ago edited 3d ago
wait you tell me I can install linux at work on the fucking windows 11 machine? AH no, sadly I dont have admin rights.
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u/MartinKnox_Dev 2d ago
Agreed.
I use Kali + xfce on my old laptop Lenovo g500 having i5 3rd gen M series processor 4gb ram 512gb Hdd, and Windows 11 on my asus rog strix g16 r9 8940HX rtx 5050 bought a month ago which I bought for college purpose. If I dual boot, the 1tb goes. If I install any disro vanishing Win11, my college things won't work.
So I use WSL to compile and build low level language based libraries and android apps
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u/Linguistic-mystic 3d ago
Which kernel does WSL run? Linux. Hence they are Linux users.
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u/buttfarts7 3d ago
WSL is like a gateway drug
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u/really_not_unreal 💋 catgirl Linux user :3 😽 2d ago
This is correct. WSL convinced me that Linux wasn't actually so difficult, and that I could actually use it. When Windows 11 then broke an enormous number of features (the new folder button didn't even work), I decided it was time to jump ship. Let's be nice to WSL users. Linux is awesome, and we don't want to push them away.
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u/dark_mode_everything 3d ago
Exactly. I don't understand this gatekeeping. Just let people so what they want.
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u/DisastrousWelcome710 1d ago
Yeah I personally prefer WSL over a full Linux distro because I can run a game that doesn't work on Linux while simultaneously running a workload that only works on Linux. I do that a lot with this set up and I love it.
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u/UnfunnyRedditManhaha 2d ago
This! I think users who daily WSL have better knowledge in using general terminal tools and navigation than users who jumped straight to Linux with established DE.
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u/diegotbn 3d ago
Using WSL is fine bro.
Who is the "real" Linux user between the IT professional that spends most of her time in WSL in the terminal, or the novice Ubuntu/Mint user who only uses the GUI? They both are real Linux users.
Why do Linux enthusiasts have to be insufferable gatekeepers sometimes.
I have to use WSL at work because I'm not allowed to run bare metal Linux. It was either that or a MacBook and no thank you to the MacBook.
At home I use Arch btw
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u/Medium_Platform_6955 2d ago
You forgot the novice only spending time on ricing their system without actually doing anything else besides claiming they use arch btw
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u/DisastrousWelcome710 1d ago
I much rather have a bare metal Linux for my work computer given Windows is just restricted in every possible way and it's just awful. But for my personal PC I run Windows with WSL because my Windows is very debloated as I have full control over it. I do exactly 0 development work on either Windows machine, and all my development is strictly in WSL.
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u/mrheosuper 3d ago
I use android, am i also linux user ?
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u/crimsonyoteeeeeee 2d ago
Does your phone run on the Linux kernel?
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u/mrheosuper 2d ago
Yes
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u/crimsonyoteeeeeee 2d ago
Then you're a Linux user
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u/Routine_Working_9754 3d ago
that's stupid. if you use wsl for everything windows can't do then linux is clearly better so switch
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u/mooscimol 2d ago
>I have to use WSL at work because I'm not allowed to run bare metal Linux.
Read it again.
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u/ilnarildarovuch 3d ago
Well, vm usage is still an usage
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u/TopSecretGaming_YT 3d ago
WSL isn't a vm
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u/gabrielesilinic 3d ago
It is a very well integrated VM. They tried something else in version 1 but it sucked ass so they gave up.
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u/True-Kale-931 3d ago
At least windows also runs in a VM since that's how the hypervisor required for wsl2 works.
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u/Melodic_coala101 🍥 Debian too difficult 3d ago
It's a castrated to the maximum hyper-v vm. Very light, and with very little overhead
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u/GreedySecurity8030 M'Fedora 3d ago
I hate mfs who act superior to us for using arch in wsl.
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u/VirtuLilli 3d ago
I use SteamOS on a custom PC, am I invited to the Linux party?
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u/DenizBueno 3d ago
I use Android, I'm on it too?
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u/cute_lil_fox 💋 catgirl Linux user :3 😽 3d ago
Yeah, but you're
/storage/emulated/0baby. You're locked there.2
u/Routine_Working_9754 3d ago
yes. I argue android users are linux users. graphics and app stacks are different, kernel is only modified in that it has added drivers, but isn't too far off, and Linux programs run perfectly fine
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u/AmraelTheGravedancer 2d ago
Ma non puoi modificare nulla. O quasi. Il che, per un utente base, va più che bene.
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u/Routine_Working_9754 2d ago
whether something is Linux or not isn't defined by that though. "desktop linux" mostly refers to the a Linux system where you do what you want
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u/hdkaoskd 3d ago
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as WSL, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU+Linux. WSL is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU+Linux system made useful by Linux and the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU+Linux system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU+Linux which is widely used today is often called WSL, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU+Linux system, including the GNU+Linux projects.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the WSL system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. WSL is normally used in combination with the GNU+Linux operating system: the whole system is basically Windows with GNU and Linux added, or WSL+GNU+Linux. All the so-called WSL distributions are really distributions of GNU+Linux!
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u/dark_mode_everything 3d ago
OP, you're not as special as you think. Even though the Linux desktop share is low, the server share is very high so every server admin/user is a Linux user.
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u/C4rpetH4ter M'Fedora 3d ago
I feel like it's a bit like saying someone isn't a "real" linux user if they dual boot, even though i think the majority of linux users do that to some degree.
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u/wrcromagnum 3d ago
WSL was my gateway into Linux
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u/Kzitold94 2d ago
Technically, RaspberryOS got me familiar with the terminal, and my switch as a daily driver began with a dual-boot.
Though I did occasionally use a live-boot.
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u/vossmakeitsprinkly 2d ago
Its great when you need both, but don't want a VM. Doing a lot of programming related stuff is so much less of a hastle in WSL.
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u/Kzitold94 2d ago
Never heard of WSL.
My switch to Linux started with a dual-boot (I run 3 drives.)
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u/Gokudomatic 2d ago
Do you mind?! I got forced to move to windows. I'm trying to survive the best I can!
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u/CocHXiTe4 1d ago
I can use it to put Nvidia drivers in Steam OS, as per guidance by 28allday/NO SIGNAL YouTuber.
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u/dallenbaldwin 2h ago
Arguably WSL users deserve just as much respect as full Linux users. WSL is primarily terminal focused. Can you even get a DE running with it?
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