Windows 10 May 2020 Performance For WSL vs. WSL2

[k1e0x]

Something must be really wrong with WSL1 because you just can't get faster than metal. it's doing some translations that are just really not optimal. And having WSL2 exist is just kind of pointless because it's just a VM.

It seems really possible to do.. Sun did this. I think Microsoft is just punting on the problem instead of solving it. (and personally I'm fine with that.. punt away because having WSL seems like a threat to Linux)

[JEBjames]

Pardon my ignorance; I don't have any hands on experience with recent Windows server versions or with WSL. That said, what is the use case for WSL on a server? I thought WSL was more of a Cygwin competitor, something that allows a Windows PC to run Linux binaries. Like WINE, but in reverse. If that's true, then I cannot imagine anyone hosting servers with it.

As I understand it, WSL1 is more like Cygwin. WSL2 is basically HyperV.

Windows has some infuriating problems. But it's familiar to many people. I'd much rather run the familiar win10 desktop than pick sides in the Best Linux GUI Holy War. Anything that makes it easier for people to try Linux is a win for opensource.

But...once you get your brand new cool kid thing working under WSL2...export the VM to stand-alone Hyper-V. Or an azure VM. Or turn any win10 Professional computer into an emergency Hyper-V server if a dedicated server goes down. Insert Microsoft happy ecosystem dream scenario here.

Virtualization is a commodity. You can easily export a VM and deploy or test it on Hyper-V, VMWare, xcp-ng, VirtualBox, whatever. They are all great and each has it's place.

Yes, having a (relatively) easy built-in way to test and play with Linux stuff under windows is not for everybody.

[qarium]

The exodus from Linux to Windows and fall in Linux marketshare is largely due to the GNOME standard desktop environment

really ? i switched from KDE to Gnome because of CLA war...

[eltomito]

Why would anyone use WSL instead of Linux? I was thinking about it just today and I couldn't think of any reason. What's a use case for WSL?

[fahrenheit]

Corporate laptops with Windows only images, locked down bios.

Being able to use wsl or wsl2 in this situation is much better than using vms (for different reasons between wsl and wsl2).

Wsl2 has the added advantage of not triggering windows defender

[CommunityMember]

.... It's far more than nothing ....

I see optimism bias is alive on Phoronix.

[duby229]

I see optimism bias is alive on Phoronix.

Optimism? What? Facts are what facts are.... There are millions of active desktop linux users. And growing...

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/phoronix/general-discussion/1179872-why-doesn-t-everyone-pressure-amd-to-release-their-source?p=1187179#post1187179

[xtprion]

Why would anyone use WSL instead of Linux? I was thinking about it just today and I couldn't think of any reason. What's a use case for WSL?

For people that rely on linux and use linux daily, it doesn't have any real reason to use WSL, but for people like me, who live on Windows, using hardware that isn't work properly with Linux (using laptop with AMD and nVidia, and i can't make my nvidia gpu work), WSL is a godsend.

I usually dual booting windows with plasma on my old laptop. Windows for gaming and working, Plasma for anything fun and hobby related. But today i don't have such a time to close my game and every work, restart my pc, then booting plasma. Thank god WSL 2 appears, so i could compile custom rom easily on windows.

[tildearrow]

There's no evidence that MS gave money to Canonical to move to gnome. Your conspiracy theory doesn't make any sense.

Possible evidence is that in 2016, Microsoft teamed up with Canonical for building WSL (back then called Bash for Windows).

[sarmad]

When it comes to performance the numbers are only half the story. The other important factor is how light the system feels. How long does it take for apps to start? How long does the sluggishness go when starting or switching apps before the system stabilizes and starts performing at the level we are seeing in these numbers? How much extra memory is consumed by WSL or Windows itself? etc. While the numbers show similar performance between WSL2 and native Linux, the reality is different when using it on daily basis as your main dev machine.