I entered a project with the understanding that the client's systems work with Linux, but that wasn't the case. WSL saved me there -- for me it's much much better than developing on pure Windows. Still at the bottom of my choices though (Linux > Mac > Win WSL > Win).
I won't bore you with the details, but things are locked down and a dev folder structure is assumed and baked into the build system, both for sources and dependencies.
I am using WSL2 right now and it is not better than 'glass of cold water for someone stuck in hell'. It is better than running Virtualbox, but doesn't hold a candle to real thing.
WSL2 _is_ a VM, just nicely packaged by MS and well integrated into the Windows experience. Less faffing around than with VirtualBox or Hyper-v, integrated with Windows terminal, GUI works out the box if you need it, etc.
> Agree, honestly I don’t see the point of WSL, it is far less hassle to either Remote Desktop into a real Linux machine, or run a VM.
Windows is way more configurable than Linux. To this day, there's nothing like AHK on Linux! Also, Windows offers the best terminal experience.
I've tried foot on Wayland, it's ok, but I want better than ok. I've spend too much time trying to squeeze a good experience out of xterm (https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm)
Surely you need AHK because Windows is less configurable? I want basic window management that's been in KDE for decades, but corporate IT won't let me have AutoHotKey. It's so frustrating having to move windows around all the time rather than them just going where they should. No focus options, no pin-on-top (except in OneNote) ... it's really a massive climb down from Kde/Plasma.
How are you using terminals in Windows? Like you want to SSH from a fresh install, what do I do? (I find Linux superior here, but interested to learn why you're the opposite; maybe I'm doing it wrong)
> Surely you need AHK because Windows is less configurable
No, but because it lets me do remaps, like having Caps be both Control and Esc - and I do the same with Enter being both Control when used with another key, and Enter alone.
My Alt keys are Alt keys when used with another key, or Home/End when used alone.
My physical Esc key is a "jump to terminal" key that takes me from wherever to my fullscreen terminal, then back. For example, from the browser: one press of Esc gets me to the terminal, another press gets me back to the browser - and likewise for every app (not just the browser). That's even better than quake-mode!
I have other sequences to copy/paste images as base64enc and other crazy things that make my life easier: like changing the system and app theme to dark (or back to light), applying a color inversion +- red filter (late at night, no white: it's all just red), an OLED-black filter (to convert bad greys to pure black)
> How are you using terminals in Windows? Like you want to SSH from a fresh install, what do I do?
I'd recommend the latest Windows terminal from the Microsoft store, or mintty from msys2, but that's just for comfort :)
> I find Linux superior here, but interested to learn why you're the opposite; maybe I'm doing it wrong
I like sixels, so I prefer mintty, but even without sixels, I find the Windows experience better. Yes, I want sixels and cute fonts with ligatures in my terminal. But I want proper support of bold, underline, italic. I want multiple tabs. I want to map key actions to everything - like, I want my terminal to change its color profile and font with just 1 key. I want keyboard shortcuts to different profiles with different shells or ssh hosts (with color or other titlebar/tab indicators to know at a glance which is which)
That's very hard on Linux, and sometimes just impossible. That's easy on Windows.
I haven't used Windows for years but it was forced upon me by my new employer.
Overall I'm not impressed, at least when compared to a full native Gnome experience.
Not sure how people are managing, any filesystem operation (on C: for e.g.) takes forever, also GUI apps feel sluggish and heat the laptop.