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Comment by Koshkin | Hacker News Reader

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Koshkin·

> switch to a Windows

Why not Linux?

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Way too much software that is either Windows or macOS only. We make games so there isn’t really the choice.

WSL2 is nearly Linux. File IO is a bit slow compared to native Linux and if you want to call a Windows application running on localhost from within WSL2 it's a bit tricky but otherwise it works very well.

I spent years developing in WSL and while it’s decent, it’s still not fool proof. Recently I’ve made the switch to pure Linux work stations and I have the opposite to offer:

I’d rather config WINE to run a Windows app then configure and play with WSL. It’s a great tactic but Linux DE’s are so polished these days I think WSL is a poor choice.

WSL2 is quite a bit better than WSL1 imo, speaking as someone who has used both a fair bit. Especially now that GPU, GUI, and audio support are available on Insiders. Some tasks still don't work very well, like connecting to external devices or anything that needs systemd (like installing snaps), but by and large I've found it harder and harder to justify dual booting Linux with WSL2 available.

I thought dual booting would be a pain but what actually happened is that migrating was mostly pain free these days and I haven’t booted the Windows install for any reason.

As soon as Visual Studio can run on Linux I will gladly switch but currently my backend tooling is Windows only and WSL2 is godsent to connect .NET with cloud tooling.

WSL1 was not well designed. If you only worked with WSL1, you would be surprised how well WSL matured.

I’ve worked with both.

For one - most employers don't provide any option for Linux work laptop and installing a new OS on windows machine is not allowed

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