[TeMPOraL]

WSL1 process creation is faster compared to Windows, because part of the black magic it does to run Linux processes on NT kernel is using minimal processes - so called "pico processes"[0]. These are much leaner than standard Windows processes, and more suited for UNIX-style workflow.

I can't say if it's faster relative to WSL2, but I'd guess so. WSL2 is a full VM, after all.

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[0] - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/wsl/pico-proc...

[vlovich123]

It shouldn't actually be a noticeable difference. HW virtualization means that unless the guest is doing I/O or needs to be interrupted to yield to the host, the guest is kind of just doing its thing. Spawning a new user space process in a VM should, in theory, be basically the same speed as spawning a new user space process on the bare metal. How that compares to the WSL1 approach of pico processes I don't know, but Linux generally has a very optimized path for spawning a process that I would imagine is competitive.