{"slug": "windows-subsystem-for-linux", "name": "Windows Subsystem for Linux", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "Microsoft's built-in feature for running Linux distributions and tools inside Windows.", "recommenders": 51, "commenters": 114, "warners": 25, "score": 30.735, "rising": -3.75, "first": "2025-11-02", "latest": "2026-10-11", "why": "Liked for running Linux command-line tools and dev setups alongside Windows apps on one machine, and increasingly for Linux containers.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 52, "neutral": 42, "compare": 5, "warn": 25}, "spark": [4, 6, 5, 1, 11, 4, 6, 6, 0, 1, 3, 5], "listed": true, "loved": ["Both worlds", "Easy Linux access"], "caveat": "Filesystem issues", "short_quote": "WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/microsoft/wsl", "official_url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["WSL", "WSL2", "WSL 2", "Windows Subsystem for Linux", "WSL1", "WSL 1"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for running Linux command-line tools and dev setups alongside Windows apps on one machine,", "cites": [{"id": 800595312, "item_id": 50037207, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037207", "by": "tonymet", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "excerpt": "I've never enjoyed Linux desktop. I love Linux command line tools. WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux CLI tools on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 777018801, "item_id": 48563675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563675", "by": "nilkn", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds", "excerpt": "I use Windows on my home PC simply because it's such a versatile setup thanks to native GPU support, game support, and WSL2. It feels like I can do almost everything on one machine with little to no compromise. If I didn't care about games I'd probably load Linux onto it, but WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds without needing to do that.", "context": "gamer who also develops", "use_case": "Linux tooling on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude: Elevated errors across many models"}, {"id": 774567232, "item_id": 48410452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.", "excerpt": "Also lack of specific software on the Linux side. Adobe suite (I used Figma and Adobe tools in my webdev career), PDF editing is a huge issue and lackluster on Linux, most of the office suite is not available natively on Linux (no, there's no valid replacements when your company is deep into VBA tooling, etc), PowerBI, but also many specific internal tools that many businesses have and have been developed as Windows-", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "use_case": "Linux dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}, {"id": 773904592, "item_id": 48369037, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48369037", "by": "chollida1", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment", "excerpt": "Oh wow. I love mine, so much that I've never been back to the apple laptop eco system since. The two surface laptops I've had are the best laptops I've owned. The build it rock solid, its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment and I still get a windows environment for work with excel, etc. The keys don't come off the keyboard like they do with my old mac chicklet style laptop keys and even my 10 year old can stil", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for World Makers"}, {"id": 767943216, "item_id": 47996451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996451", "by": "k3vinw", "date": "2026-05-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m most excited for the scheduler and memory footprint improvements. As bad as I hear Windows 11 is, I\u2019ve rarely had issues with it. For the most part it just works and stays out of my way. My only gripes are the occasional forced updates and a rare hard crash that happened once in a span of a year of using it as my daily driver. Well that and I have to be mindful of running too many resource starving processes at t", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March"}]}, {"text": " and increasingly for Linux containers.", "cites": [{"id": 800527360, "item_id": 50032960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032960", "by": "jameshart", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows", "excerpt": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows[1]. I don\u2019t think it even made front page of HN, which shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment, but it is absolutely something Apple should be offering as a first class capability on OS X. The compatibility of the host OS file system with being mounted into docker images makes it a better environment for r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}, {"id": 800511488, "item_id": 50031968, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031968", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "excerpt": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is filesystem trouble between Windows and Linux,", "cites": [{"id": 773869648, "item_id": 48366853, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366853", "by": "kube-system", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "excerpt": "> WSL provides a seamless filesystem experience between windows and Linux which is more than I can say for MacOS. They must have made major improvements since the last time I used it then, because filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 774645904, "item_id": 48415369, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415369", "by": "desipenguin", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.", "excerpt": "I did a similar workshop between Feb-April (1 hour zoom call on Wednesday, 3 hour hands-on in person every week) Most of the participants has Windows laptop. (Except one with Mac) We had suggested Linux on WSL2 and VSCode. (`uv` for python package management) But realized that we were spending a LOT of time fighting the tools/combination. WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together. For person with macO", "context": "ran an AI workshop", "use_case": "workshop dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 776113456, "item_id": 48507091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507091", "by": "edallme", "date": "2026-06-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount", "excerpt": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount, e.g., https://github.com/microsoft/wsl/issues/40773", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows file system access", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}]}, {"text": " and some prefer dual booting or plain Hyper-V VMs instead.", "cites": [{"id": 775077778, "item_id": 48442361, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48442361", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this.", "excerpt": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this. Microsoft is user hostile and the only thing they care about Windows users is how much ad revenue they can get from shoving AI down their users throats. I recommend doing a dual boot. I personally do a multi drive dual boot, because again, Microsoft is user hostile and will sometimes randomly just blow away the Linux EFI partition if they're both on the same drive. . If", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "I am giving up on VM Gaming"}, {"id": 776601045, "item_id": 48537565, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537565", "by": "tenderfault", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.", "excerpt": "I switched to Windows 10 as my main development machine few years ago after 25 years of continuously crashing Linux with an enormous pleasure. FreeBSD, well, there's nothing to crash there, that's the problem with it. Nothing. I didn't know almost anything about this Windows OS so I just started playing some sort of whac-a-mole game with it. I don't know what I did but right now I'm a happy (windows 11) user. I use H", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Both worlds", "summary": "Gives Linux tooling without leaving Windows apps, games, or work software.", "quotes": [{"id": 800595312, "item_id": 50037207, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037207", "by": "tonymet", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "excerpt": "I've never enjoyed Linux desktop. I love Linux command line tools. WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux CLI tools on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 777018801, "item_id": 48563675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563675", "by": "nilkn", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds", "excerpt": "I use Windows on my home PC simply because it's such a versatile setup thanks to native GPU support, game support, and WSL2. It feels like I can do almost everything on one machine with little to no compromise. If I didn't care about games I'd probably load Linux onto it, but WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds without needing to do that.", "context": "gamer who also develops", "use_case": "Linux tooling on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude: Elevated errors across many models"}, {"id": 774567232, "item_id": 48410452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.", "excerpt": "Also lack of specific software on the Linux side. Adobe suite (I used Figma and Adobe tools in my webdev career), PDF editing is a huge issue and lackluster on Linux, most of the office suite is not available natively on Linux (no, there's no valid replacements when your company is deep into VBA tooling, etc), PowerBI, but also many specific internal tools that many businesses have and have been developed as Windows-", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "use_case": "Linux dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}]}, {"label": "Easy Linux access", "summary": "Built into Windows and simple to start using for a Linux environment.", "quotes": [{"id": 787866129, "item_id": 49241633, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49241633", "by": "RagnarD", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "makes it very easy to play with Linux", "excerpt": "Huh? https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/windows-install/ Also, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) has been baked into Windows for a long time and makes it very easy to play with Linux, as does using the Hyper-V VM system. Any developer unfamiliar with Linux because they use Windows, has little excuse.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Docker Sandboxes \u2013 Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents"}, {"id": 773904592, "item_id": 48369037, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48369037", "by": "chollida1", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment", "excerpt": "Oh wow. I love mine, so much that I've never been back to the apple laptop eco system since. The two surface laptops I've had are the best laptops I've owned. The build it rock solid, its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment and I still get a windows environment for work with excel, etc. The keys don't come off the keyboard like they do with my old mac chicklet style laptop keys and even my 10 year old can stil", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for World Makers"}, {"id": 773229184, "item_id": 48326824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326824", "by": "dude250711", "date": "2026-05-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal", "excerpt": "Besides, the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}]}, {"label": "Dev workflow", "summary": "Works well as a dev box, including VS Code connecting into it and installing dev tools inside it.", "quotes": [{"id": 800542432, "item_id": 50033902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033902", "by": "Mabusto", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it", "excerpt": "I moved to Linux 8 months ago because of how crappy windows 11 has become. One of the things I loved about windows was developing on it, WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it and it\u2019s my own little dev box. I\u2019ve really enjoyed the switch so far, having attempted it a few times in the past and ended up going back to windows (once in 2003, another in 2012). It\u2019s encouraging to see MS continue to ", "context": "Moved to Linux 8 months ago", "use_case": "dev box on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 773351892, "item_id": 48334493, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334493", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you probably want to do all of the installation inside of WSL", "excerpt": "The other comment already mentioned that you get their subscription: https://mistral.ai/pricing/ they do say that you can try out their coding agent for free, but personally the Pro tier is pretty affordable too to try out for a month. Then you can install their coding harness, I personally used the Python + uv option: https://mistral.ai/products/vibe/code/ if you don't have uv yet, you might have to install it too: ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Notes from the Mistral AI Now Summit in Paris"}, {"id": 770413984, "item_id": 48150874, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150874", "by": "artemonster", "date": "2026-05-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I just use WSL2 for rare cases where I need my unix build tools", "excerpt": "this resonates with my experience. once every 3 years I try linux as primary OS for my home PC, I do small stuff with C/python, browse web and play factorio. I use linux in VM on my job daily, so I am not a beginner, but gosh, linux sucks. Everything breaks constantly even when doing NOTHING. Nothing ever works installing first try, you always end up googling stupid error message and stumble upon 250 other idiots tha", "context": "uses Linux in a VM at work daily", "use_case": "unix build tools on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "I love Linux, but I can't quit Windows"}]}, {"label": "Containers", "summary": "Used for Linux containers and separate lightweight distros per project.", "quotes": [{"id": 800527360, "item_id": 50032960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032960", "by": "jameshart", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows", "excerpt": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows[1]. I don\u2019t think it even made front page of HN, which shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment, but it is absolutely something Apple should be offering as a first class capability on OS X. The compatibility of the host OS file system with being mounted into docker images makes it a better environment for r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}, {"id": 800511488, "item_id": 50031968, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031968", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "excerpt": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 798751456, "item_id": 49921966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49921966", "by": "tonymet", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just run separate wsl \u201cdistros\u201d (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images", "excerpt": "No need for mise just run separate wsl \u201cdistros\u201d (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images . I use alpine because each one is tiny", "context": "", "use_case": "separate dev environments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: NSL \u2013 WSL for Linux"}]}, {"label": "Accessibility", "summary": "A blind developer says it lets them use Windows accessibility while running the same tooling as Mac-using colleagues.", "quotes": [{"id": 797644960, "item_id": 49852810, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49852810", "by": "jareds", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a blind developer WSL is amazing.", "excerpt": "Don't ruin this for me. As a blind developer WSL is amazing. Windows accessibility is significantly better then Mac in my experience. I use WSL, everyone else uses a Mac, and all the same tooling and scripts work identically.", "context": "blind developer", "use_case": "development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL as a Blind Spot for Enterprise Endpoint DLP Controls"}]}, {"label": "Hardware access", "summary": "WSL2 is described as reaching graphics cards natively and requesting RAM on demand.", "quotes": [{"id": 773856784, "item_id": 48366049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366049", "by": "ActorNightly", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So WLS2 can talk to hardware like Graphics cards natively, and request ram on demand.", "excerpt": ">that's a VM running Linux on Windows While thats true, its not what you think it is. WSL1 was VM in a traditional sense, it ran under windows. When you install WSL2, it basically changes your computer core OS to be a bare metal hypervisor (specialized version of Hyper V). Its the same concept as any cloud provider letting people provision VMs that run at native performance on the actual hardware. So WLS2 can talk to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Filesystem issues", "summary": "Problems with the Windows filesystem, silent automount failures, and tool combinations like uv.", "quotes": [{"id": 773869648, "item_id": 48366853, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366853", "by": "kube-system", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "excerpt": "> WSL provides a seamless filesystem experience between windows and Linux which is more than I can say for MacOS. They must have made major improvements since the last time I used it then, because filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 774645904, "item_id": 48415369, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415369", "by": "desipenguin", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.", "excerpt": "I did a similar workshop between Feb-April (1 hour zoom call on Wednesday, 3 hour hands-on in person every week) Most of the participants has Windows laptop. (Except one with Mac) We had suggested Linux on WSL2 and VSCode. (`uv` for python package management) But realized that we were spending a LOT of time fighting the tools/combination. WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together. For person with macO", "context": "ran an AI workshop", "use_case": "workshop dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 776113456, "item_id": 48507091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507091", "by": "edallme", "date": "2026-06-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount", "excerpt": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount, e.g., https://github.com/microsoft/wsl/issues/40773", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows file system access", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}]}, {"label": "Prefer alternatives", "summary": "Some recommend dual booting or using Hyper-V directly instead.", "quotes": [{"id": 775077778, "item_id": 48442361, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48442361", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this.", "excerpt": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this. Microsoft is user hostile and the only thing they care about Windows users is how much ad revenue they can get from shoving AI down their users throats. I recommend doing a dual boot. I personally do a multi drive dual boot, because again, Microsoft is user hostile and will sometimes randomly just blow away the Linux EFI partition if they're both on the same drive. . If", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "I am giving up on VM Gaming"}, {"id": 776601045, "item_id": 48537565, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537565", "by": "tenderfault", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.", "excerpt": "I switched to Windows 10 as my main development machine few years ago after 25 years of continuously crashing Linux with an enormous pleasure. FreeBSD, well, there's nothing to crash there, that's the problem with it. Nothing. I didn't know almost anything about this Windows OS so I just started playing some sort of whac-a-mole game with it. I don't know what I did but right now I'm a happy (windows 11) user. I use H", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything"}]}, {"label": "Key grabbing", "summary": "The WSL2 shell window captures keys like ^V, making ssh and remote Emacs awkward.", "quotes": [{"id": 774517440, "item_id": 48407340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48407340", "by": "anamax", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V.", "excerpt": "I switched from WSL (reconn'd to WSL1) to WSL2 because I thought that WSL1 would be abandoned. However, the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V. So, ssh from WSL2 (to AWS for example) is awkward. For exampl, Emacs on the AWS box is almost unusable.", "context": "", "use_case": "ssh to AWS from Windows", "switched_from": "WSL1", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}]}, {"label": "Resource use", "summary": "Running WSL alongside other heavy processes can degrade performance.", "quotes": [{"id": 767943216, "item_id": 47996451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996451", "by": "k3vinw", "date": "2026-05-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m most excited for the scheduler and memory footprint improvements. As bad as I hear Windows 11 is, I\u2019ve rarely had issues with it. For the most part it just works and stays out of my way. My only gripes are the occasional forced updates and a rare hard crash that happened once in a span of a year of using it as my daily driver. Well that and I have to be mindful of running too many resource starving processes at t", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March"}]}], "who": [{"by": "Mabusto", "context": "Moved to Linux 8 months ago", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033902", "date": "2026-10-10"}, {"by": "jareds", "context": "blind developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49852810", "date": "2026-09-26"}, {"by": "nilkn", "context": "gamer who also develops", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563675", "date": "2026-06-16"}, {"by": "epolanski", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "date": "2026-06-05"}, {"by": "darkstarsys", "context": "Surface Pro user, also daily drives an M1 MacBook Pro", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48362224", "date": "2026-06-01"}, {"by": "artemonster", "context": "uses Linux in a VM at work daily", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48150874", "date": "2026-05-15"}, {"by": "llm_nerd", "context": "has done in-depth WSL2 work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47303533", "date": "2026-03-08"}, {"by": "Rapzid", "context": "daily WSL developer, little OS-level engineering", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47301604", "date": "2026-03-08"}, {"by": "endymion-light", "context": "Uses WSL for work; switched from Windows to a MacBook after a decade", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47260020", "date": "2026-03-05"}, {"by": "pregnenolone", "context": "Linux user for years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46799547", "date": "2026-01-28"}, {"by": "eleventhborn", "context": "developer moved from Gsuite/Atlassian/AWS to Microsoft", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46772946", "date": "2026-01-26"}, {"by": "Const-me", "context": "develops embedded and server software", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46113411", "date": "2025-12-01"}], "tags": ["for Windows developers", "for Linux containers", "for gamers who code", "for accessibility needs", "for NixOS users"], "use_cases": ["linux on windows", "linux environment on windows", "linux dev environment on windows", "development environment", "linux tooling on windows", "linux cli tools on windows"], "compared": [{"slug": "microsoft-windows", "name": "Microsoft Windows", "co": 31, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 14, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "linux", "name": "Linux", "co": 11, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "docker", "name": "Docker", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "windows-11", "name": "Windows 11", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "hyper-v", "name": "Hyper-V", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "powershell", "name": "PowerShell", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46039140", "title": "Isn't WSL2 just a VM?", "mentions": 15}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47299505", "title": "WSL Manager", "mentions": 8}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49998801", "title": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48355720", "title": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49894351", "title": "Show HN: NSL \u2013 WSL for Linux", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48403377", "title": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access", "mentions": 3}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 7, "warn": 4, "recommend": 4}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 7, "warn": 5}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 5, "warn": 3}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 11, "warn": 4, "neutral": 7}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 4, "compare": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 6, "compare": 2}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 6, "warn": 7, "neutral": 4}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 3, "compare": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 3}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800665840, "item_id": 50041615, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041615", "by": "riedel", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "being able to use wsl on my windows based work laptop added a lot to nixos affordance", "excerpt": "Also being able to use wsl on my windows based work laptop added a lot to nixos affordance : https://nix-community.github.io/NixOS-WSL/install.html", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nix wrote half of my debugger"}, {"id": 800664544, "item_id": 50041534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041534", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "WSL 1.0 was a Drawbrige picoprocess.", "excerpt": "No it did not, it used Drawbridge OS research for Library OSes, which was integrated into Windows. WSL 1.0 was a Drawbrige picoprocess. Your confusion is natural among those that aren't into Windows programming. Here are the links for the related information, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/drawbridge WSL 1.0 architecture, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/wsl/pico-process-overview", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}, {"id": 800595312, "item_id": 50037207, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50037207", "by": "tonymet", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "excerpt": "I've never enjoyed Linux desktop. I love Linux command line tools. WSL is the best of both worlds for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux CLI tools on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800546736, "item_id": 50034171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034171", "by": "hrunt", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "WSL3 is the app version.", "excerpt": "WSL3 is the app version. The underlying mechanism of how Windows runs Linux hasn't changed. The change from WSL to WSL2 was in that mechanism (WSL: run via syscall translation, WSL2: run via VM). This is an app change, so it covers the interfaces of how you can start running Linux code, but underneath the hood, it's still a kernel running within a VM. The big addition here is the support for containers. The app now p", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800542432, "item_id": 50033902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033902", "by": "Mabusto", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it", "excerpt": "I moved to Linux 8 months ago because of how crappy windows 11 has become. One of the things I loved about windows was developing on it, WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it and it\u2019s my own little dev box. I\u2019ve really enjoyed the switch so far, having attempted it a few times in the past and ended up going back to windows (once in 2003, another in 2012). It\u2019s encouraging to see MS continue to ", "context": "Moved to Linux 8 months ago", "use_case": "dev box on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800535408, "item_id": 50033463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033463", "by": "mellosouls", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love WSL", "excerpt": "I love WSL, but giving this a major upgrade label (2 to 3) seems a bit of a stretch, at least from the viewpoint of an average dev user. Perhaps it reflects the amount of work and thought that has gone into it, but I really think the optics are better if the selling points are immediately obvious to the user. Hopefully some light will be shed in further blogs.", "context": "", "use_case": "development on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800527360, "item_id": 50032960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50032960", "by": "jameshart", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows", "excerpt": "Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows[1]. I don\u2019t think it even made front page of HN, which shows how far windows has fallen as a developer environment, but it is absolutely something Apple should be offering as a first class capability on OS X. The compatibility of the host OS file system with being mounted into docker images makes it a better environment for r", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry"}, {"id": 800511488, "item_id": 50031968, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031968", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "excerpt": "Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800509920, "item_id": 50031870, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031870", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "nowadays I use WSL to run immutable containers", "excerpt": "Since nowadays I use WSL to run immutable containers, and not really classical Linux Desktop, it isn't something that bothers me. Agents take more time than building Docker images.", "context": "", "use_case": "running containers", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800503872, "item_id": 50031492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031492", "by": "Randomno", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Is it accurate to call this WSL3?", "excerpt": "Is it accurate to call this WSL3? WSL 2 was released in 2019, but WSL 2.0.0 was released in 2023 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.0.0", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 798751456, "item_id": 49921966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49921966", "by": "tonymet", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just run separate wsl \u201cdistros\u201d (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images", "excerpt": "No need for mise just run separate wsl \u201cdistros\u201d (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images . I use alpine because each one is tiny", "context": "", "use_case": "separate dev environments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: NSL \u2013 WSL for Linux"}, {"id": 798451361, "item_id": 49903210, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49903210", "by": "aj2048", "date": "2026-09-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I did enjoy WSL when I used Windows.", "excerpt": "I've wanted a little more isolation than what distrobox can give me for a while now, and I did enjoy WSL when I used Windows. I've also never heard of Frostyard before, and the other repos look pretty interesting as well. Thanks for sharing!", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: NSL \u2013 WSL for Linux"}, {"id": 798424785, "item_id": 49901549, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49901549", "by": "rao-v", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use mise inside WSL.", "excerpt": "I use mise inside WSL. It's sort of a terminal into \"workspace\" for me. Should probably spin an orbstsck or whatever to do thisnon my macbook", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: NSL \u2013 WSL for Linux"}, {"id": 797644960, "item_id": 49852810, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49852810", "by": "jareds", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "As a blind developer WSL is amazing.", "excerpt": "Don't ruin this for me. As a blind developer WSL is amazing. Windows accessibility is significantly better then Mac in my experience. I use WSL, everyone else uses a Mac, and all the same tooling and scripts work identically.", "context": "blind developer", "use_case": "development environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL as a Blind Spot for Enterprise Endpoint DLP Controls"}, {"id": 796685009, "item_id": 49792813, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792813", "by": "nateb2022", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now", "excerpt": "Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now: https://chromeos.dev/en/linux Although I would definitely prefer macOS or Windows + WSL (since I play a decent bit of games), ChromeOS is a lot more pleasant experience now than in the past.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Rolls Out $899-Plus 'Ai laptops'"}, {"id": 794612452, "item_id": 49663278, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49663278", "by": "joshAg", "date": "2026-09-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "so WSL is an option too", "excerpt": "Don't worry, it's not just you: https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/8/4/15 It's because linux is a toy OS. Specifically, it overcommits memory in the hope/assumption that it won't all be used at once, but doesn't have a way to gracefully degrade when applications collectively want to use more memory(+swap) than it actually has. You can turn off overcommit, but applications are designed with the overcommitting feature in mind,", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop making swap partitions\u2014use swap files instead"}, {"id": 787866129, "item_id": 49241633, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49241633", "by": "RagnarD", "date": "2026-08-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "makes it very easy to play with Linux", "excerpt": "Huh? https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/windows-install/ Also, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) has been baked into Windows for a long time and makes it very easy to play with Linux, as does using the Hyper-V VM system. Any developer unfamiliar with Linux because they use Windows, has little excuse.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Docker Sandboxes \u2013 Disposable, isolated sandboxes for AI agents"}, {"id": 787086097, "item_id": 49192881, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49192881", "by": "blain", "date": "2026-08-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "wsl is working well when you open the project with special command", "excerpt": "Although I agree and I hit same roadblock I found that wsl is working well when you open the project with special command, see my comment here: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/26857#discussioncomment-17661638 Nevertheless it could have been working better.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Zed DeltaDB"}, {"id": 781780849, "item_id": 48861303, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48861303", "by": "masfoobar", "date": "2026-07-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "in recent years, I tend to use Emacs via WSL.", "excerpt": "This is what I do when I use Windows. However, in recent years, I tend to use Emacs via WSL. However, I believe Microsoft Intune is used within the Business to control what software can and cannot be installed. So my guess is Windows won't allow you to install via a typical .exe I am not suggesting the above is 100% valid. I just don't want to get a new laptop and find out. Maybe I can still use Emacs via WSL... bypa", "context": "", "use_case": "running Emacs on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "In Emacs, Everything Looks Like a Service"}, {"id": 777471633, "item_id": 48591977, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48591977", "by": "tracker1", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "often joking that WSL was my favorite Linux distro", "excerpt": "I'm not really using anything too exotic... my hardware all works, and my printer has generally been without issue (HP Color Laser on ethernet) regardless of what I use to print from. For me, I switched when the start menu started showing internet ads as part of the results... I ran insiders for years, often joking that WSL was my favorite Linux distro... I love the new MS Terminal, and pretty happy with a lot of thi", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 777018801, "item_id": 48563675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48563675", "by": "nilkn", "date": "2026-06-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds", "excerpt": "I use Windows on my home PC simply because it's such a versatile setup thanks to native GPU support, game support, and WSL2. It feels like I can do almost everything on one machine with little to no compromise. If I didn't care about games I'd probably load Linux onto it, but WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds without needing to do that.", "context": "gamer who also develops", "use_case": "Linux tooling on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude: Elevated errors across many models"}, {"id": 776601045, "item_id": 48537565, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537565", "by": "tenderfault", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.", "excerpt": "I switched to Windows 10 as my main development machine few years ago after 25 years of continuously crashing Linux with an enormous pleasure. FreeBSD, well, there's nothing to crash there, that's the problem with it. Nothing. I didn't know almost anything about this Windows OS so I just started playing some sort of whac-a-mole game with it. I don't know what I did but right now I'm a happy (windows 11) user. I use H", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything"}, {"id": 776113456, "item_id": 48507091, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507091", "by": "edallme", "date": "2026-06-12", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount", "excerpt": "I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount, e.g., https://github.com/microsoft/wsl/issues/40773", "context": "", "use_case": "Windows file system access", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}, {"id": 775775792, "item_id": 48485987, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48485987", "by": "oso2k", "date": "2026-06-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "", "excerpt": "There is also git-bash which usually doesn\u2019t need to have administrator to be installed. https://git-scm.com/install/windows", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "macOS Container Machines"}, {"id": 775077778, "item_id": 48442361, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48442361", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this.", "excerpt": "I would recommend dual booting over doing this. Microsoft is user hostile and the only thing they care about Windows users is how much ad revenue they can get from shoving AI down their users throats. I recommend doing a dual boot. I personally do a multi drive dual boot, because again, Microsoft is user hostile and will sometimes randomly just blow away the Linux EFI partition if they're both on the same drive. . If", "context": "", "use_case": "running Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "I am giving up on VM Gaming"}, {"id": 774645904, "item_id": 48415369, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48415369", "by": "desipenguin", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.", "excerpt": "I did a similar workshop between Feb-April (1 hour zoom call on Wednesday, 3 hour hands-on in person every week) Most of the participants has Windows laptop. (Except one with Mac) We had suggested Linux on WSL2 and VSCode. (`uv` for python package management) But realized that we were spending a LOT of time fighting the tools/combination. WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together. For person with macO", "context": "ran an AI workshop", "use_case": "workshop dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 774567232, "item_id": 48410452, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48410452", "by": "epolanski", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.", "excerpt": "Also lack of specific software on the Linux side. Adobe suite (I used Figma and Adobe tools in my webdev career), PDF editing is a huge issue and lackluster on Linux, most of the office suite is not available natively on Linux (no, there's no valid replacements when your company is deep into VBA tooling, etc), PowerBI, but also many specific internal tools that many businesses have and have been developed as Windows-", "context": "webdev career, uses Windows for work", "use_case": "Linux dev environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}, {"id": 774517440, "item_id": 48407340, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48407340", "by": "anamax", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V.", "excerpt": "I switched from WSL (reconn'd to WSL1) to WSL2 because I thought that WSL1 would be abandoned. However, the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V. So, ssh from WSL2 (to AWS for example) is awkward. For exampl, Emacs on the AWS box is almost unusable.", "context": "", "use_case": "ssh to AWS from Windows", "switched_from": "WSL1", "story": "WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access"}, {"id": 774503264, "item_id": 48406454, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48406454", "by": "okanat", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "When you run fork in a WSL1 program now", "excerpt": "In the next post they literally tell that NT kernel \"supports\" it https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/wsl/pico-process-overview#windows-kernel-changes . In the same post if you scroll down into the comments they also say that their fork implementation Just because YOU don't have access to the functionality used for fork, it doesn't mean that there are no internal API calls that can do a fork or do somethi", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Coreutils for Windows"}, {"id": 774332000, "item_id": 48395750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48395750", "by": "int_19h", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "warn", "quote": "WSL is literally the Linux kernel running in a VM, so WSL is actually closer.", "excerpt": "WSL is literally the Linux kernel running in a VM, so WSL is actually closer. But you can have a Linux kernel running in a VM on macOS as well, and while it doesn't have something like WSL built-in, it provides enough foundation for others to build it: https://lima-vm.io/docs/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 774128001, "item_id": 48383000, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48383000", "by": "fortran77", "date": "2026-06-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use WSL2 for command line/Docker stuff.", "excerpt": "I run Windows 11 Pro on it. I like it. I use WSL2 for command line/Docker stuff. If you're not insterested in using Windows 11 Pro as your main OS, I'd make sure someone's figured out how to run Linux native on it (and make sure all power management/audio/etc works!) before buying.", "context": "", "use_case": "Command line and Docker", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 774038560, "item_id": 48377410, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48377410", "by": "okanat", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "WSL1 DOES implement fork() for WSL1 lightweight processes", "excerpt": "WSL1 DOES implement fork() for WSL1 lightweight processes in the lxcore.sys driver: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/wsl/windows-subsystem-for-linux-overview#system-calls", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Coreutils for Windows"}, {"id": 773989857, "item_id": 48374366, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48374366", "by": "gavinray", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Terminal + WSL2", "excerpt": "People will talk down on this because it's Microsoft, but I use Terminal + WSL2 and have been waiting for Cursor-like functionality to be integrated. I don't want to download more programs and pay more subscriptions, so I'm quite happy to replace Terminal with this.", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Intelligent Terminal 0.1"}, {"id": 773904592, "item_id": 48369037, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48369037", "by": "chollida1", "date": "2026-06-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment", "excerpt": "Oh wow. I love mine, so much that I've never been back to the apple laptop eco system since. The two surface laptops I've had are the best laptops I've owned. The build it rock solid, its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment and I still get a windows environment for work with excel, etc. The keys don't come off the keyboard like they do with my old mac chicklet style laptop keys and even my 10 year old can stil", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Surface Laptop Ultra: Made for World Makers"}, {"id": 773869648, "item_id": 48366853, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366853", "by": "kube-system", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "excerpt": "> WSL provides a seamless filesystem experience between windows and Linux which is more than I can say for MacOS. They must have made major improvements since the last time I used it then, because filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 773856784, "item_id": 48366049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366049", "by": "ActorNightly", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So WLS2 can talk to hardware like Graphics cards natively, and request ram on demand.", "excerpt": ">that's a VM running Linux on Windows While thats true, its not what you think it is. WSL1 was VM in a traditional sense, it ran under windows. When you install WSL2, it basically changes your computer core OS to be a bare metal hypervisor (specialized version of Hyper V). Its the same concept as any cloud provider letting people provision VMs that run at native performance on the actual hardware. So WLS2 can talk to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 773856785, "item_id": 48366049, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366049", "by": "ActorNightly", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "compare", "quote": "WSL1 was VM in a traditional sense, it ran under windows.", "excerpt": ">that's a VM running Linux on Windows While thats true, its not what you think it is. WSL1 was VM in a traditional sense, it ran under windows. When you install WSL2, it basically changes your computer core OS to be a bare metal hypervisor (specialized version of Hyper V). Its the same concept as any cloud provider letting people provision VMs that run at native performance on the actual hardware. So WLS2 can talk to", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 773795584, "item_id": 48362224, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48362224", "by": "darkstarsys", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "But it runs Adobe, Resolve, Chrome of course, msys2, and Linux (WSL2) quite well.", "excerpt": "I'm on my third Surface Pro (an 11 this time) and basically love it. Tablet form factor, lightweight, multitouch, with a real desktop OS (I mean not ipad's iOS). Decent battery life. True, it's not perfect: slow to wake, the touchpad stops working once in a while & needs to be reset. Missing a GPS chip. But it runs Adobe, Resolve, Chrome of course, msys2, and Linux (WSL2) quite well. I love the absolutely gorgeous Hi", "context": "Surface Pro user, also daily drives an M1 MacBook Pro", "use_case": "Linux on Surface Pro", "switched_from": "", "story": "MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra"}, {"id": 773351892, "item_id": 48334493, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334493", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-05-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you probably want to do all of the installation inside of WSL", "excerpt": "The other comment already mentioned that you get their subscription: https://mistral.ai/pricing/ they do say that you can try out their coding agent for free, but personally the Pro tier is pretty affordable too to try out for a month. Then you can install their coding harness, I personally used the Python + uv option: https://mistral.ai/products/vibe/code/ if you don't have uv yet, you might have to install it too: ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Notes from the Mistral AI Now Summit in Paris"}, {"id": 773229184, "item_id": 48326824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326824", "by": "dude250711", "date": "2026-05-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal", "excerpt": "Besides, the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"}, {"id": 767943216, "item_id": 47996451, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47996451", "by": "k3vinw", "date": "2026-05-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.", "excerpt": "I\u2019m most excited for the scheduler and memory footprint improvements. As bad as I hear Windows 11 is, I\u2019ve rarely had issues with it. For the most part it just works and stays out of my way. My only gripes are the occasional forced updates and a rare hard crash that happened once in a span of a year of using it as my daily driver. Well that and I have to be mindful of running too many resource starving processes at t", "context": "", "use_case": "Linux environment on Windows", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March"}]}