Linux

48655 readers

898 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Is the Windows Subsystem for Linux worth it? (self.linux)

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

55 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've had a pretty poor experience with it myself, so I wanna see what the Linux community thinks about this.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am a software developer and am forced to have Windows on my work computer. WSL allows me to have a Linux terminal that I can use directly on my files without needed a VM.

[–] wmassingham 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. Well, not forced, but using Linux would just make everything more difficult. I like being able to drop to a shell and use a Linux environment with its useful utilities to manipulate stuff on my Windows PC.

Yeah, I could use mingw, but that is a pain, and I can't just apt install stuff.

[–] NateNate60 4 points 1 year ago

Not the same as apt, but there's Chocolately, which is actually a legitimate package manager for Windows.

choco install firefox

There's also a package called gsudo which allows you to preface a PowerShell command with sudo to run it as an administrator. It will cause a UAC prompt.

sudo choco update all

[–] Resol 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I guess that's a bonus.

But being forced to use a terminal to do anything is kinda hard to deal with if you're not a developer. I'm probably guessing this didn't bother you that much.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I prefer the terminal and have tools I like to use that are CLI only.

Edit: and Linux only.

[–] Resol 0 points 1 year ago

Good to know.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What are you trying to do on WSL? I think the whole point of WSL originally was to have a linux terminal on Windows, before they added graphics in WSL 2.

[–] Resol 1 points 1 year ago

I was trying to run applications on it, similar to their Windows Subsystem for Android that they released as an update to Windows 11. I have to say, the latter is significantly easier to deal with imo.