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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Thoughts on Windows and WSL? (158436977.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I've recently been interested in doing a complete switch from Windows to Ubuntu, and I've been playing around with WSL2 in Windows quite a bit and I have to admit I am pretty impressed with their implementation.

However, one of the reasons I've been drawn to Linux these days is the privacy aspect, and I'm looking to get everyone's thoughts on whether using Linux apps in WSL improves your privacy at all, or do I need to just flat out get off windows to get any sort of privacy benefit. My plan is to eventually get off Windows completely, but I guess I'm wondering if WSL is a good middle ground.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

WSL2 is good, but not usable in all scenarios. IIRC, it can't use systemd services. It is also very slow with file I/O, which is not a problem with small datasets, but some of the git repos I work with are so big that git operations take a couple of minutes to complete in WSL2, but only take a second or so in PowerShell. If you are doing a full backup of your PC with rsync or something like that, it could take days to complete something that would take only 30 minutes or so running in a native Windows shell.

[–] wmassingham 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/systemd-support-is-now-available-in-wsl/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Wish I could say that was an improvement.

[–] Voytrekk 4 points 1 year ago

It depends on where the files are located. If they are within your WSL distro, then speed is similar to a Linux VM. If you need to do large operations on Windows files from WSL, WSLv1 is a better option.