[beefbroccoli]

WSL2 uses it's own init system - only one kernel (plus a tiny initrd) is virtualized by hyper-v; each subsequent linux instance (distribution) is containerized. There's additional facilities that handle resource allocation dynamically vs the user specifying a static amount during VM creation.

These (and more) result in the end-user interacting with WSL2 the same way they would any normal application. To think of it as simply a VM isn't quite correct.

[indigodaddy]

So I fired up Ubuntu first for my current WSL2... then I installed a Kali distribution.. are you saying that the Kali instance is really just a container inside the Ubuntu WSL2?

[beefbroccoli]

No. A minimal initrd + kernel is virtualized. Both Ubuntu and Kali are containers.

[indigodaddy]

Ah gotcha. Neat stuff.

[qbasic_forever]

Sure but I could just run Ubuntu and containerd in a VM and it's the same thing. Or just run k8s instead...

[beefbroccoli]

Not quite. WSL2 dynamically uses resources as needed (`vmmem`), whereas a traditional VM requires allocating a fixed amount of RAM and CPU from the host machine.