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> It would be nice if they did something actually useful, like add native ext4 support.

Other way around. The Kernel getting real support for NTFS (was merged into Linus' tree a month ago [0]) there's hope to get native performance on WSL2.

Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade.

[0] https://www.linuxtoday.com/news/linux-kernel-5-15-will-have-...




Linux and Windows use mutually exclusive permission/ACL bits, even on the same NTFS filesystem.


If Linux would just adopt NFSv4 ACLs, there'd be nothing mutually exclusive about it, but instead perfectly in tandem.


> even on the same NTFS filesystem

can you explain a bit how this works?


I think they use extended attributes in NTFS to provide the Linux file system permission.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/file-permission...


That was WSL v1. WSL v2 is a full blown VM and the filesystem is native ext4 and lives in an image file.


> Microsoft is building the dev environment for the next decade.

Big claim, most devs I've met either use Mac or Ubuntu. Can't remember anyone using Windows...


Have a look at JetBrains' developer surveys. Windows is consistently the most used OS.

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2021/#Main_on-whic...

Windows: 61% Linux: 47% macOS: 44%


There are literally dozens of us!

No, really, when all of my development happens over SSH or inside Docker anyway, it doesn't really matter which is the "outer" OS. I'm happy with Windows.


Mac is a small slice of the software engineer market, and mostly in the web-app/mobile space.


every single FAANG (and many middle tier companies too) distributes macbook pros to its devs.


Just because there is no viable enterprise-ish Linux computer that fits those environments. Sadly :(


Definitely not true since (at least at FB) you can also get an auxiliary laptop (Thinkpad) with Linux (Fedora). Just that no one wants them.


It really depends on the company. In my limited experience I can say that only FAANGs will probably allow such an environment. Other big corporations aren't quite there yet.


And yet that doesn’t constitute even close to the majority of developers.


It’s pretty common among game, .net, and Java EE devs. For me as a Python/Node/Cloud dev it was kinda a nonstarter (it all theoretically works, but has all kinds of little bugs and caveats) until WSL was stable. Since then it’s been perfectly viable for anything I’m working on, and I was able to use it exclusively for dev work for about 6 months. I have a Mac laptop too, but my desktop is too beefy to not use as my daily driver. Still, I prefer Linux for development work.


<raises hand> I've consistently developed Unix (then Linux) server software on WindowsNT since 1996.


I develop Linux software on Windows using Visual Studio / C++. It lets me build and debug my servers on Linux machines remotely using nice IDE and tools. Also use CLion from Jet Brains the same way


Linux has had read-only support for NTFS longer than WSL has been around. And if you think that Kernel patch is a testament to the greatness of Windows, you should try reading some of it. It's infamously incomprehensible.

I'd be onboard with Windows as a next-gen dev environment if it was compatible with more filesystems, had a more organized file structure, featured greater CPU compatibility, and eliminated the system registry altogether.




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