Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), when it first appeared, attracted attention and controversy when it first appeared. Here are the reasons why WSL makes sense for me as a Linux user on Windows.
I can jump on coding ideas
One great thing I love about WSL is that if I have an idea for something I want to try in the shell or in Python, I can just fire up a terminal when I'm in Windows. This lets me jump on in and experiment. If I want to examine a dataset from Kaggle, I just download it and import it using pandas in IPython or a Jupyter notebook .
I can run mainstream apps
One attraction of WSL is that I can run a Linux development and tinkering environment alongside mainstream apps and games, the latter of which I'll mention later. While there are more games and productivity apps for Linux, there will be more written for Windows that I can anticipate in the future. It's not like I'm a Windows enthusiast. It's just kind of...there. An operating system, I think, should disappear. It's only a way to get at more interesting things on the system.
I can still play my favorite retro games, in Windows or Linux
For some reason, the modern "AAA" gaming scene hasn't really done it for me. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I think gaming on the PC peaked in the '90s. I grew up on classic adventure games like the King's Quest series, as well as simulations like SimCity . I also like visual novels and even more modern indie titles like Balatro , which I think is a modern classic. It might not be newer games but retro ones that push me toward Windows.
A lot of the modern versions of these games available are for Windows, even though Steam and GoG support Linux. A lot of the games I happen to like are ones the developers don't seem to have ported. This is strange in the case of GoG retro games, which often use ScummVM or DOSBox, both of which are readily available for Linux. I don't want to use WINE just to open an archive that an emulator will run. For fun stuff at least, that would likely push me toward Windows.
No rebooting
What I appreciate about WSL is that I don't have to break up my flow when I want to try something in Linux when in Windows by rebooting into another system . If I want to fire up SSH or Python, I can just call up an Ubuntu terminal window. It's the same as if I had opened a terminal on a desktop Linux system.
This goes back to my ability to jump on ideas immediately. I don't want to break up my flow by shutting down Windows, going to grub and starting up Linux. By the time I can launch a terminal on the Linux desktop, I might forget why I wanted to do so in the first place.
I can get a full Linux desktop experience if I want it
Most of Linux apps I use are terminal-based. This is why I'm more amenable to WSL in the first place. The ability to run graphical Linux apps in WSL on Windows 11 has increased its utility. There's yet another game I like called XGalaga , a clone of the classic arcade game Galaga.
I can also fire up a full desktop environment. This could be on the old laptop I installed a version of Debian on, or in the various virtual machines I keep around for testing, particularly with my go-to Xfce environment .
I've always been more agnostic about Linux desktop environments. There are only so many ways to put windows on the screen and move them around. I've probably imprinted on the desktop metaphor somehow, even though I could live in a bare window manager if I could only live on a Linux system full-time.
This means that I could escape to a full Linux environment if I really wanted to or had to.
Windows might be hard to escape in practice
My primary reason for using WSL is that, in both my professional and recreational computing life, it appears that Windows will be around in some form. That might change in the future, but there will still likely be a lot of older games and programs I will want to spin up in the future, even if only out of nostalgia.
This says more about software vendors than it does about me. Linux is great for making stuff and actually participating in technology rather than just sitting back and scrolling through endless feeds.
WSL shows off one of Linux's greatest strengths
The ability of Linux to interoperate with other systems is one of the strengths of the culture and likely a reason why it's so dominant among Unix-like systems today. I don't think I've seen other operating systems stress this as much. WSL exemplifies what makes Linux so valuable as a practical computing tool: you don't have to commit to it as an all-or-nothing system.
You can run a full Linux system on a machine without Windows, a dual-boot system , connect to a remote Linux server over SSH , or run it in WSL. You get a real choice in how you use it.
Whatever you think about WSL, it's opened new possibilities in my digital life by blending both Windows and Linux.
