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by erwinkle 3520 days ago
I have been developing using the bash shell on Windows. It's got a couple quirks (like a couple second startup time on first startup, or docker issues) but it has performed exceptionally otherwise. I've primarily been doing nodejs development and installing random unix packages I need.
1 comments
bane 3520 days ago
Out of curiosity have you thought about just running a linux server in a VM and sshing into it from the shell? It seems bizarre I know, but you get a "real" linux then, while still keeping a major OS for software compatibility with user apps.
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nxc182 3520 days ago
The point of the Windows Subsystem for Linux is that you don't need to run a VM. It is much more efficient in terms of speed (you're not keeping a whole virtualized Linux kernel and everything else running) but also in terms of energy. I can run bash on my Surface (not pro) 3 without any noticeable hit to battery life and without hurting performance.

If 'real linux' is the Linux userspace, then that's what you're getting with Ubuntu - all of 'Linux' except the Linux kernel. WSL allows the NT kernel to handle all of the Linux syscalls. If you consider just the public interface, then WSL is also 'real linux'.

Of course this is all theoretical because there are still some bugs here and there. Those are being dealt with and WSL is making great progress.

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dingo_bat 3520 days ago
I used to do exactly what you're suggesting. I had a headless vm always running in my laptop and I used to ssh into it. I have turned the vm off since I started using bash on Ubuntu on windows. There are hiccups, but 99% of the time I don't notice that it isn't "real" Linux.
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pcwalton 3520 days ago
It's faster to not have to have a separate filesystem, and with the new update or cbwin [1] you can launch native Windows apps from the command line.

[1]: https://github.com/xilun/cbwin

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erwinkle 3520 days ago
I've had 0 need to do that as a web developer, and I much prefer developing on windows 10 than Ubuntu. The bash shell does everything I need it to. The small things that don't work in the bash shell, I can just run the windows version. It basically just boils down to the tools and environment you need, but I have everything I want and need on windows 10 now.
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