Ubuntu's VP of Engineering says WSL usage on Windows 11 is growing faster than native Ubuntu installs, and could overtake them within months.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    Funnily enough, Microsoft built WSL so developers could use Linux without leaving Windows. Instead, it turned a growing number of Windows PCs into functional Linux development machines, with Windows serving as little more than the launcher.

    I mean, I get using Windows if you’re actually doing Windows development work, but if not, I’d just put Linux proper on the thing.

    The appeal for developers is that even if their employer issues a Windows laptop, and even when their development stack expects Linux, WSL removes the need to dual-boot.

    With WSL, they don’t have to fight their employer’s hardware policy to get it.

    Any employer that is employing someone to do Linux development work and takes issue with them having a Linux box to do dev work isn’t a place that I’d want to bother to work.

    • BlaestEgnen@feddit.dkEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      Functionally all new apps are “Linux development work”, as modern C# solutions are containerised and hosted on Linux servers.

      Microsoft gave up on Windows servers a decade ago when they released .net Core, as it was the sound solution to ensure continual growth of Azure and fighting off Java adoption hosted through AWS/GCP

      .net framework is a niche framework now, which just a few legacy platforms run today.

      However the reason IT requires Mac and Windows for everyone, is because they can lock those machines down. Like mad down, they don’t want to build software to lock Linux machines down from a central place.