Windows 10 May 2020 Performance For WSL vs. WSL2

[Mez']

The fact that your Work PC is locked down, is not Windows its fault. You can run a non-locked down Windows and enjoy the full experience.

Blah blah. And blame Windows for it.

I didn't read everything. Too long, too late. Plus you obviously have a reading comprehension problem.

I never blamed Windows for my computer to be locked down. I actually blame admins. Your argumentation is thus moot.

Sometimes I can't even change my wallpaper image. As if it would break stuff...

[writerinserepeat]

That could've been Microsoft's business strategy a decade ago, but present day MS is quite different. The OS is no longer their main focus. The service is, and specifically the Azure cloud. Azure is OS agnostic - it runs both Linux and Windows VM images. MS is well aware that most cloud-enabled software is developed on and runs on Linux and they want to make development for Linux on their platform as painless as possible, which is where WSL comes into play.

The ecosystem you describe already exists. It is called Visual Studio. It can target Linux, both x86 (for server and desktop) and ARM (for embedded) and has seamless integration with Azure. You write your code in VS on Windows, thus benefiting from all the bells and whistles it provides as one of the most capable IDEs out there, then you test the code in WSL, and finally with several clicks you deploy it on Azure, all without leaving VS.

WSL is not a sinister plan from MS to embrace, extend, and extinguish Linux on the server. It is a surrender to the reality of today that the OS is becoming more and more irrelevant with the advent of the cloud and the move to web-based applications. It is also a stab at Apple, because macOS is the only Unix OS with consistent desktop experience, which is why many application and web developers flock to it. MS doesn't care if you develop for Windows or for Linux, as long as what you develop is running on Azure. Things like unikernels and serverless are even further reducing the dependence on a particular OS.

To give you a bit more context, AWS accounts for more than 50% of Amazon's operating income. And as Benedict Evans, a well-known technology analyst, recently wrote: "the future of desktop software is still the web. No-one has started a company to make a Mac or Windows productivity app in 20 years." (probably true)

No need for MS to go after the MacOS platform; Apple has been doing a terrific job of destroying it - and alienating just about anyone who does meaningful work on it - all on their own. Knocking Nvidia off the platform, removing backwards compatibility for 32 bit programs in Catalina, sub-par hardware performance and throttling, and now shifting to ARM for the CPU...half a year after releasing their long-awaited Mac Pro refresh.

I know it's now all about iOS and fluffy, cute emoticons, programs and games for consumers at Apple, but seeing them destroy what could be the defacto platform for developers and visual effects shops, etc... is just sad. We need competition; not self-immolation, but they just don't care or listen.

Linux feels like the last line of defense against a future where emoticons and garish color schemes are valued more than system capability.

[icaci]

I don't have experience with that too (luckily ) but I guess that the server is the aim of microsoft for WSL, there's no other reason why they're integrating Linux inside Windows (they already dominate Desktop).

What I'd do if I were Microsoft, would be create an ecosystem that allows developer to easily deploy their "linux" application from their windows workstation directly to their Microsoft server with just one click and that allows them to monitor and manage that software as well.

That could've been Microsoft's business strategy a decade ago, but present day MS is quite different. The OS is no longer their main focus. The service is, and specifically the Azure cloud. Azure is OS agnostic - it runs both Linux and Windows VM images. MS is well aware that most cloud-enabled software is developed on and runs on Linux and they want to make development for Linux on their platform as painless as possible, which is where WSL comes into play.

The ecosystem you describe already exists. It is called Visual Studio. It can target Linux, both x86 (for server and desktop) and ARM (for embedded) and has seamless integration with Azure. You write your code in VS on Windows, thus benefiting from all the bells and whistles it provides as one of the most capable IDEs out there, then you test the code in WSL, and finally with several clicks you deploy it on Azure, all without leaving VS.

WSL is not a sinister plan from MS to embrace, extend, and extinguish Linux on the server. It is a surrender to the reality of today that the OS is becoming more and more irrelevant with the advent of the cloud and the move to web-based applications. It is also a stab at Apple, because macOS is the only Unix OS with consistent desktop experience, which is why many application and web developers flock to it. MS doesn't care if you develop for Windows or for Linux, as long as what you develop is running on Azure. Things like unikernels and serverless are even further reducing the dependence on a particular OS.

To give you a bit more context, AWS accounts for more than 50% of Amazon's operating income. And as Benedict Evans, a well-known technology analyst, recently wrote: "the future of desktop software is still the web. No-one has started a company to make a Mac or Windows productivity app in 20 years." (probably true)

[ylluminate]

After having just executed this benchmark, you should do a curiosity service to see if the 8% margin is closed any further with Windows Insider Preview Build 20150. This would be extremely interesting to keep a running tab to see how Microsoft is doing at bringing performance closer to native / bare metal. There is definitely enough curiosity: https://old.reddit.com/r/bashonubunt...buntu_2004_on/

[cochise]

which is why I suspect we've gotten so many new qt-based desktop environments in the last few years.

And the only ones with relevance merged on LXQt, that uses some of KDE frameworks.

[240Hz]

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

Then why doses Microsoft put so much effort into promoting Gnome as the "standard linux desktop"?

[Michael_S]

Most tech employers will allow their employees to run Windows or Mac, but not Linux. So WSL2 isn't a Microsoft attack on Linux usage by developers, it's a Microsoft attack on Apple usage by developers.

I run Linux on my personal machines. But for work, I'm stuck between Windows + McAfee anti-virus or Mac + Sophos anti-virus, and Sophos is so unbelievably horrid that Windows is the less frustrating option even without WSL or WSL2. I would take another job, but this is the top paying employer in my area and I'll suffer through some Microsoft-sourced pain for a 20% pay advantage over other options.

And the constant Canonical, Red Hat, and systemd bashing is really old. I'm genuinely starting to wonder if that's the real FUD campaign from Microsoft - make the Linux user community so toxic that novices are scared off.

[Danny3]

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

Of course there is no evidence, do you thing any of them would come publicly with something like that?
Maybe it doesn't make sense for anyone but for me it does.
Microsoft has always been a company that uses its power (money) to make anti-competitive things, bribe politicians to make governments take Microsoft's deals.
There was even an anti-corruption investigation about that in my country which an intermediary company bribed some politicians to take huge deals, pay for a lot of licenses.
There's also the Munich case where they have used their money again to stop Linux adoption to block a what would've been a successful example.

Canonical is know that it cares mainly about making money and they will accept every kind of deal for that.
I can still remember the Amazon deal.
Lately they implemented data collection, just like Windows 10.
Then they tried to drop 32bit libraries to hinder Linux gaming ecosystem.
Now they are helping a lot Microsoft with WSL and making ubuntu a distro that Works in Windows.
For me knowing Canonical being so eager for money and doing all these actions against the community and Linux, but in favor of Microsoft makes it very easy to conclude that Microsoft gives them something for that, otherwise they would not shoot themselves in the foot for nothing.

[CochainComplex]

I don't have experience with that too (luckily ) but I guess that the server is the aim of microsoft for WSL, there's no other reason why they're integrating Linux inside Windows (they already dominate Desktop).

What I'd do if I were Microsoft, would be create an ecosystem that allows developer to easily deploy their "linux" application from their windows workstation directly to their Microsoft server with just one click and that allows them to monitor and manage that software as well.

That would create an incentive to use the microsoft "hybrid beast"on the server instead of another enterprise Linux distribution and honestly, I think it will gain a lot of marketshare.

Plus, they could "extend" their Linux with some special feature, as some kind of integration with the Microsoft world.

That would be their classic Embrace, Extend and Extinguish strategy.

Spot on. I think they are doing this.

[Mez']

That implies people were only using Linux for performance reasons, or that they would stand to gain from using Windows.

As a developer, I avoid Windows because I value privacy and control over my own hardware, something that Microsoft will never give me.

The fact that my system environment matches the environment of the server I might want to deploy to is a bonus.

As an average Joe, I avoid Windows because it's just bad, from the bundled packages* (vs package management), to the limited user-friendliness, instability, security concerns, their deceiving corporate DNA (and I'm no leftist), or many other things.

If my work computer wasn't admin locked, I would probably use WSL2 as much as possible to feel "at home".
It's such a downgrade to open a Windows computer every morning when I could use Linux the evening before. I always feel like I'm coming from a Jaguar and end up in a Dacia, I can't find all these extra options that make your life a breeze. And it breaks down every now and then (BSoD or just things that start to break after a few suspend/resume).


*why you would want to use snaps or flatpaks and go back to that misery and the waste of resources of having multiple versions of the same library is beyond me. It feels like 1998.