WSL
Windows Subsystem for Linux, Microsoft's feature for running Linux distributions on Windows.
Liked as a daily Linux dev environment on Windows123, letting one machine handle games, Windows-only apps and Linux tooling456, with easy VS Code connection and isolated per-project distros.78 The most common complaints are tooling friction with the Windows filesystem and occasional crashes or silent mount failures9101112, and some prefer dual booting or a full VM instead.131415
Why people recommend it
Windows dev environment · 3
Commenters use it as a pleasant daily Linux development environment on Windows.
“I use it as my daily driver for dev work (at work, since we're required to use Windows :( ) and to be honest it's quite pleasant most of the time.”
“WSL is a far better developer environment in Windows even for dotnet based development.”
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“WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.”
Both worlds · 3
It lets one Windows machine cover gaming and Windows-only software alongside Linux tools.
“WSL2 gets me most of what I want from both worlds”
“WSL allows you to generally have both of the words.”
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“But it runs Adobe, Resolve, Chrome of course, msys2, and Linux (WSL2) quite well.”
Isolated environments · 3
Separate distros or containers give lightweight, isolated workspaces.
“just run separate wsl “distros” (VMs ) eg Debian-node , debian-Claude by importing root images”
“nowadays I use WSL to run immutable containers”
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“In cases where I want WSL2 to function as a "container" isolated from my desktop, I use a different Windows user”
Tight integration · 2
Close Windows integration, including VS Code connection, makes setup easy.
“I use it as my daily driver for dev work (at work, since we're required to use Windows :( ) and to be honest it's quite pleasant most of the time.”
“WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it”
Cross-platform parity · 2
Tooling and scripts work the same as on colleagues' Macs, and GPU acceleration works out of the box.
“As a blind developer WSL is amazing.”
“something that works out of the box on WSL”
Accessibility · 1
A blind developer says it pairs Linux tooling with Windows' better accessibility.
“As a blind developer WSL is amazing.”
Caveats and dissent
Host OS frustrations · 3
Some commenters dislike Windows itself and recommend dual booting or Hyper-V instead.
“I would recommend dual booting over doing this.”
“I stay away from crap like WSL and Code.”
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“I look back fondly to the time I had using my Dell XPS when WSL first came out, they had me hooked.”
Tooling friction · 2
Some tools, such as uv with the Windows filesystem, need tuning or work poorly.
“WSL2 + Windows filesystem + uv did not work well together.”
“I tried the whole WSL2 but lots of apps need so much tuning to work properly”
Reliability · 2
Users report crashes needing a full reboot and silently failing automounts.
“sometimes WSL crashes and there's literally no way to recover except to restart the whole machine”
“I wouldn't try this yet. I ran into problems with silent failing automount”
WSL2 limitations · 2
Some find WSL2 worse than WSL1 or VMware, including a terminal that intercepts keys like ^V.
“I find WSL2 pretty much useless.”
“the shell for WSL2 runs in a window that grabs things, such as ^V.”
Resource use · 1
Running WSL with other heavy processes can quickly degrade performance.
“WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.”
Mount control · 1
Mounting the Windows drive inside WSL2 is mostly all-or-nothing.
“In cases where I want WSL2 to function as a "container" isolated from my desktop, I use a different Windows user”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- WSL Manager 4 mentions
- WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload 3 mentions
- Show HN: NSL – WSL for Linux 3 mentions
- WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access 3 mentions
- Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux 2 mentions
- Isn't WSL2 just a VM? 2 mentions
Also written as WSL2, WSL 2. Data: wsl.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 34
“WSL2 was great and I loved just having VS Code connect to it”
“I love WSL”
“nowadays I use WSL to run immutable containers”
“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.”
“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”
“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.”
“I use Terminal + WSL2”
“But it runs Adobe, Resolve, Chrome of course, msys2, and Linux (WSL2) quite well.”
“I just use WSL2 for rare cases where I need my unix build tools”
“WSL is my favorite and most used feature of Windows 11.”
“I rejoiced when WSL2 support improved, meaning I no longer had to use a Mac.”
“I look back fondly to the time I had using my Dell XPS when WSL first came out, they had me hooked.”
“In cases where I want WSL2 to function as a "container" isolated from my desktop, I use a different Windows user”
“I've done a lot of in-depth WSL2 work”
“100% of what I use Windows for was as a WSL2 foundation”
“sometimes WSL crashes and there's literally no way to recover except to restart the whole machine”
“I tried the whole WSL2 but lots of apps need so much tuning to work properly”
“something that works out of the box on WSL”
“WSL is a far better developer environment in Windows even for dotnet based development.”
“mostly just using the 10 cores at my desk to run minikube and WSL and Windows”
“I find WSL2 pretty much useless.”
“I use it as my daily driver for dev work (at work, since we're required to use Windows :( ) and to be honest it's quite pleasant most of the time.”
“WSL just makes windows suck less”
“I use Claude for coding (and mostly in WSL).”