Windows Subsystem for Linux
Microsoft's built-in feature for running Linux distributions and tools inside Windows.
Liked for running Linux command-line tools and dev setups alongside Windows apps on one machine,12345 and increasingly for Linux containers.67 The most common complaint is filesystem trouble between Windows and Linux,8910 and some prefer dual booting or plain Hyper-V VMs instead.1112
Why people recommend it
Both worlds · 3
Gives Linux tooling without leaving Windows apps, games, or work software.
“WSL is the best of both worlds for me.”
“WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds”
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“WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.”
Easy Linux access · 3
Built into Windows and simple to start using for a Linux environment.
“makes it very easy to play with Linux”
“its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment”
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“the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal”
Dev workflow · 3
Works well as a dev box, including VS Code connecting into it and installing dev tools inside it.
“WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it”
“you probably want to do all of the installation inside of WSL”
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“I just use WSL2 for rare cases where I need my unix build tools”
Containers · 3
Used for Linux containers and separate lightweight distros per project.
“Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows”
“Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.”
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“just run separate wsl “distros” (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images”
Accessibility · 1
A blind developer says it lets them use Windows accessibility while running the same tooling as Mac-using colleagues.
“As a blind developer WSL is amazing.”
Hardware access · 1
WSL2 is described as reaching graphics cards natively and requesting RAM on demand.
“So WLS2 can talk to hardware like Graphics cards natively, and request ram on demand.”
Caveats and dissent
Filesystem issues · 3
Problems with the Windows filesystem, silent automount failures, and tool combinations like uv.
“filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL”
“WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.”
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“I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount”
Prefer alternatives · 2
Some recommend dual booting or using Hyper-V directly instead.
“I would recommend dual booting over doing this.”
“I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.”
Key grabbing · 1
The WSL2 shell window captures keys like ^V, making ssh and remote Emacs awkward.
“the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V.”
Resource use · 1
Running WSL alongside other heavy processes can degrade performance.
“WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Isn't WSL2 just a VM? 15 mentions
- WSL Manager 8 mentions
- WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload 7 mentions
- MacBook Pro Rival with the Nvidia Powered Surface Laptop Ultra 6 mentions
- Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux 3 mentions
- WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access 3 mentions
Also written as WSL2, WSL 2, Windows Subsystem for Linux, WSL1. Data: windows-subsystem-for-linux.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 41
“being able to use wsl on my windows based work laptop added a lot to nixos affordance”
“WSL 1.0 was a Drawbrige picoprocess.”
“WSL is the best of both worlds for me.”
“WSL3 is the app version.”
“WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it”
“I love WSL”
“Microsoft just shipped a full-fledged first class Linux container runtime as part of Windows”
“Nowadays I use it mostly for Linux containers.”
“nowadays I use WSL to run immutable containers”
“Is it accurate to call this WSL3?”
“just run separate wsl “distros” (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images”
“I did enjoy WSL when I used Windows.”
“I use mise inside WSL.”
“As a blind developer WSL is amazing.”
“Linux on ChromeOS is basically as capable as WSL now”
“so WSL is an option too”
“makes it very easy to play with Linux”
“wsl is working well when you open the project with special command”
“in recent years, I tend to use Emacs via WSL.”
“often joking that WSL was my favorite Linux distro”
“WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds”
“I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.”
“I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount”
There is also git-bash which usually doesn’t need to have administrator to be installed. https://git-scm.com/install/windows
“I would recommend dual booting over doing this.”
“WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.”
“WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.”
“the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V.”
“When you run fork in a WSL1 program now”
“WSL is literally the Linux kernel running in a VM, so WSL is actually closer.”
“I use WSL2 for command line/Docker stuff.”
“WSL1 DOES implement fork() for WSL1 lightweight processes”
“I use Terminal + WSL2”
“its trivial to run wsl for a Linux environment”
“filesystem issues was the #1 reason I moved away from WSL”
“So WLS2 can talk to hardware like Graphics cards natively, and request ram on demand.”
“WSL1 was VM in a traditional sense, it ran under windows.”
“But it runs Adobe, Resolve, Chrome of course, msys2, and Linux (WSL2) quite well.”
“you probably want to do all of the installation inside of WSL”
“the Linux app is available for Windows - no need to run it bare-metal”
“WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.”