I've never used Windows in my day-to-day life. No kidding.
When I got my father's first computer, I used an old distribution called BBC Linux. I didn't have any computer knowledge, it was my first contact with a computer, so I went to a friend's house and asked for a CD to install on my computer. I don't know if this friend ended up making a "gotcha" and thought I'd give up, but I just read the manuals and fell in love. That was year 2000.
Then I used Conectiva Linux, then I went to Red Hat 9, then Slackware, then in 2007 I started using Solaris. And I stayed on Solaris (Solaris 10, Solaris Nevada and OpenSolaris) until 2011.
In 2011 I bought a Mac. I stayed at Apple until 2020, when I couldn't stand Apple forcing me to buy new computers (I still don't understand how a 2011 iMac, i5 (4 Hyper Thread cores) with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD only runs up to High Sierra).
Then I bought a Dell. It came with Windows 10, the first thing I did was install WSL2. I could not stand it, the system is bad, sorry. I installed OpenSuse and have been using it for two years.

It's just that every day someone tells me "how can you use this"? "There is no alternative to Windows, do you want to be different?"

I know that my story was the reverse of the "mainstream", so I'm going to talk about my vision of Windows, that in my brain it is actually the "alternative".

- Having a file explorer without "tabs" in 2022 is unthinkable for me.
- I love terminal. And the Windows terminal is very limited. "ps ... | awk ... | xargs ..." is a must for me. "find ./ -name '...' -exec ..."... these things on Windows are totally "different" and have the "powershell way" while all other operating systems keep the same form. And cygwin is not an option. As Wine for serious work is also not.
- Dragging a file into the terminal, and having it write its path, is so natural, that when Windows didn't do it, I was dismayed.
- I've always used StarOffice, OpenOffice and now LibreOffice. All the people in my story received my documents and reports as a PDF and no one complained. Until a coworker saw me editing in LibreOffice and said "oh I want it in word format". As long as he didn't know, everything was fine, right?
- Windows is paid. And is there advertising? I don't understand. And I refuse. If you want to display advertising, then excuse me. I have no problem paying, I'm not an opensource shiite. It's just that paying and not working bothers me much more than an opensource that I can fix or expect a fix knowing the good will of the people involved.
- Hyper-V is a joke. QEMU/KVM is better, and Bhyve on FreeBSD which is a very young project, is already a million times better than Hyper-V.
- Developing in C/C++ for Windows is only possible in two ways: Either you've always lived in Windows and your brain is conditioned, or you compile with MSYS2 (CLang or GCC).
- There is no significant evolution of the windows desktop since 95.
- Multiple workspace support with multiple monitors, not ready. It's another joke.
- REGEDIT does not need any comment.
- The system loses performance over time. I still don't know how Windows achieves this.
- I've seen people complain about desktop fragmentation on Unix and Linux. Many DEs end up leaving applications with different themes (like running a Qt application in Gnome and GTK in KDE), but to be quite honest, the lack of Windows standard bothered me much more. Even Microsoft's own software is completely different: Control Panel, Calculator, Paint and Office, To-Do, and Settings, have horrible style differences and look-and-feel fragmentation.
- Dark mode has not been implemented. It's another joke. Many applications are white while everything else is dark. Sorry, even on Linux which is a mess, this has been resolved. And well resolved.
- NTFS? Serious?
- C:, D:.. It doesn't convince me since DOS.
- Bloatware.
- News "biased" in the search bar is a lack of respect for those who use the computer to work.

And that. For me, Windows is the alternative operating system. I can't take Windows seriously, for me it's an experimental one like Haiku or ReactOS. It's good to play.

About market share, it doesn't convince me to use it. But convinces me to sell. I've always developed applications to run on Windows. And when I need it, I turn on a VM to compile the project. But in everyday life? Impractical.

With the announcement of WSL2, I am really concerned for linux DEs.

I use linux distros not just for the kernel but because most linux DEs do a far better job that windows ever will.

But the next gen programmers probably will never leave their shit systems for any distro because guess what... thay can just use WSLs.

I would probably have done the same.
You need to use a linux DE (Gnone/KDE/etc.) for at least a couple days to understand how great it is but people won't do it because windows is good enough and they can achieve most tasks in wsl.

Linux Foundation already doesn't care about DEs. (And why would they... Microsoft is filling their pockets).

I hope people still find wsl crap and have enough reasons to give any linux DE at least a few days try.

Wrote from my Manjaro KDE :(

I am currently blocked from doing my job by a firewall policy handed down from corporate that prevents WSL2 from connecting to the internet. Three days of no dev environment and counting.

We make linux software to be hosted on linux in linux containers in linux. We use linux command line tools to make it work.

"NO! WE ARE THE ALL-POWERFUL IT DEPARTMENT AND YOU MUST USE WINDOWS BECAUSE FUCK YOU THAT'S WHY."

It's not everyday that I give Microsoft praise, but damn, the new Windows Terminal is... Surprisingly decent.

Together with WSL2, it allowed me to switch from working in a VM to working fully from Windows.

And with little tweaking of the settings file, it acts exactly the way I like.

Good job creating something modern, almost universal and usable Microsoft!

I have so many questions in my head…

Should I focus doing front-end or back-end?

For mobile dev, flutter or react native?

Kanban or Agile?

Google cloud or AWS?

Switch to Linux or stick to WSL2?

Solidity or Rust for blockchain apps?

Best low-code that my dev peers won’t hate me for using?

If starting a project,
Bootstrapping or chase after VCs?

Do you guys use conditioner when you run out of shaving cream?

Keto or vegan?

Is milk really that bad for our body??

I like how a co-worker is expecting a Windows Container to work in Linux, and vice versa.

No, it doesn't work like that you fucking baffoon, Linux rootfses needs the Linux kernel (hence why it runs on WSL2 or Hyper-V using LCOW), and same can be said for Windows Containers.

How dumb of a human being must you assume everything should "just work" in a container?

I've only been using it for one day, but the most striking thing about going from VSCode to Neovim is the performance incrase.

VSCode has some noticeable input lag, but Neovim, even running in wsl2 (AN ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM VIRTUALIZED) has none.

That's sort of insane. An ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM is less heavy than a single instance of a bloated Electron app.

The absolute state of desktop development in 2024. Yes, VSCode is a fuckin amazing editor. But I can't help but think it's built like resources and performance were never truly a concern beyond "good enough".

Switched back to windows again, and Holy crap development is so much faster! It certainly has to do with the fact that I'm using WSL2, but but I'm so excited for next year, when it's officially out.

Instead of waiting 5 seconds for nodemon to restart my application, it's almost instantaneous now

Hey Guys,
What do you think about Windows 10 shipping with a real Linux Kernel? Do you enjoy the love of Microsoft towards Linux? If yes, why?

So, incase anyone was thinking of trying it, windows 11 is a bit of a mess. Not as bad as 8 tho.

I use multiple audio outputs, switching between them is now a couple of extra menus deep, my wallpaper stopped working, if you've got virtualbox and wsl2 you have to uninstall or disable one of them (currently). The task bar is now fixed on the bottom, not movable. I got annoyed by that and reverted.

So, i have that assignment about docker stuff. nifty piece of software i must say.

anyways im installing docker software on windows bc im thinking if i have something that gives me at least the correct structure and some skeletal syntax i will have a faster grasp of the thing. expecting some sort of high level ide but end up instead with what looks like a blank window, with the only obvious choice being sign into some bullshit i dont need. but thats another story

my point is:
when installing the thing it prompted me to install WSL2. which i supposedly am not supposed to have because my cpu doesnt support intel virtualisation. but being impatient (thats why i came to look for an assisted solution), i pursued the installation.

lo and behold: i end up with a shell prompt at the root of a linux filesystem!
i ran 2 or 3 muscle-memory commands and closed the prompt, i was in docker stuff up to the neck.
later on, when i go back to my project, in a virtual machine its sluggish af and screams at me that amd-v is not supported because of something something nested pages (will look up later how that one works).

dont have time to explore it some more yet, and especially experiment or even barely look at this glorious mess because i have something barely working and no time to have it fail.
but this story definitely left me perplexed.

and also : you can run WSL2 on an fx8350

Folks

I need your input on the following

how important do you think having high core count in CPUs in your daily workflow?

I'm planning on buying a new ryzen 5000 processor, while I am going to game the hell out of it I'm also planning to run wsl2, a ton of chrome tabs, maybe have multiple IDEs for developing random stuff, maybe some virtual machines for some experimentations, some docker containers for some selfhosted software and lastly open demanding games while having everything else open.

Will a 6 core 5600x be enough? or do you think investing in a 5900x will be worth it down the line? (lets say for the next 7 years)

Assume that the GPU will handle the games im going to play and the RAM is going to be 32gb for now

started a new corporate job.
yeah, I know but I need the money.
the entire setup and all is the same as the previous corporation, just a different logo. if anything these people are even more restrictive in what they let you install on Windows. damn it at least give me WSL2

Now that wsl2 is out, developing Linux first is no longer a terrible idea. Woooo!

Microsoft, seriously..
No external usb support for wsl2 , WHY??

I'm currently evaluating the best way to have both a linux distro for work and study and windows for gaming on my PC.
I need as little virtualization as possible on both systems (need to do some high performance computing and access hardware counters for uni and that sweet Ultra Raytracing 144 fps for games) and as mich flexibility in quickly switching between both systems (so dual boot isnt ideal too)
I tried WSL2 but had some issues and am currently trying out a Lubuntu VM on my windows host, but maybe someone knows the secret super cool project that magically makes this unrealistic wish work.

WSL seems really cool from what i've been toying with it. WSL2 seems like it'll be even better and the integration with docker(another thing i'm toying with) looks interesting. as far as i can find though it's only on windows insider for now, and I don't like having telemetry on my main machine.

So i spent a good chuck of my day just setting up Hyper-v, learning about nested virtualization (so docker will work), setting up a win10pro vm, and i'm now in the process of setting this up to be a virtualized dev machine (not gonna be a one use only system cause i spent way too long on this shit) and setting up docker and wsl

I don't know much about docker or WSL beyond just some random stuff i've learned to toy with to simplify some things i do. but maybe this will give me a cool way to actively learn more about them and maybe use them as more than just boredom toys