It always seemed strange to me that people would rather use WSL than the real thing when Windows doesn't bring much advantage. What am I missing ?
It always seemed strange to me that people would rather use WSL than the real thing when Windows doesn't bring much advantage. What am I missing ?
Windows brings lots of advantage to some things (including interfacing with the large number of people who rely on people having software that works only or best on Windows; in anything other than very tech-focussed firms this probably includes your employer, and even in such firms it often includes your customers, which can matter a lot even in tech roles), and not switching between physical machines or rebooting between different tasks brings advantages.
How the world has changed!
Some people have made Juniper Pulse Client work in Linux, even a co-worker has posted some instructions. But I already have a setup where I start the VPN client in a Windows VM and tunnel through it.
I feel like any Linux solution would take a lot of time to setup and might not be as robust.
Another reason I still need Windows around is we only support S/MIME encryption in the Outlook client. Part of this is because of how our internal IT configures the cert, there is a way to make it work in the webmail but our IT guys have either opted out of that or not gotten around to it.
That's pretty much it though. I can happily use Linux for 99.99% of my time.
Using Linux without a reboot is an incredible convenience. Glossing over the value of proprietary software that only runs on Windows is narrow minded.
that said, I hate Adobe products with a passion. When I build identical computers for my wife and I, the moment I install the Abode shit on hers, it becomes noticeably slower at everything. I don't truly understand it.
Edit: it does work, but it will sign you out from all M365 services which requires a lot of logins for nothing.
Shockingly, this is untrue if using KDE. Almost everything in it is better than a multi-billion-dollar company's monopolistic OS shell somehow, from the taskbar customization to the features (disable compositing, deep customization of effects and behavior, have windows remember size/position, etc.) to the file manager, Dolphin, which has split views, tabs, had a dark theme a dozen years ago, more file metadata to show optionally like date modified and size, thumbnails for even text files, terminal integration, and more (although technically that's an independent package available on any DE). The exceptions are how "smoothly" windows glide around the screen when dragged and that the Windows taskbar looks slightly better.
Quite ironic.
Visual Studio.
The other thing on my Windows VM is Affinity Photo/Designer (because GIMP is not a realistic Photoshop alternative).
I did some Googling yesterday and the last word on the matter is that Photo would cost $500k alone, which they couldn't see recuperating.[1]
[1]: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/626-affini...
Disclaimer: I use it exclusively on Linux but there are iOS clients https://www.zotero.org/support/mobile
Even something like Zoom worked like shit on Linux half the time. Or was missing features.
Audio/Video hardware had issues too. Something as simple as a webcam became this giant problem. Configuring mice and keyboards was a nightmare.
This is a lot to do with companies not supporting Linux and having to use community created reverse-engineered stuff, so it's not all Linux's fault, but at the same time, it just became a pain in the ass to maintain and fix constantly.
Also games, as much as Steam/Photon/Wine have improved, there are just some things that don't work.
So, I switched back to Windows, and even if I prefer linux, I just can't have it as my daily driver. so WSL2 is great for me.
Ignorant they are, yet their ignorance is a bliss.
The answer, at least in my case, has been using Windows where I must and WSL for whatever I can.
Being able to use both at the same time. Being able to open windows apps, and have them use the linux filesystem and executables (like IDEs)