WSL2 is not really a VM though, in the traditional sense, as it has full hardware access, including the GPU. Technically, when you enable WSL2, the Windows build itself is running through the Hyper-V hypervisor, as is the Linux distribution. In fact, a few years ago, I used Proxmox to basically do the same thing, in order to test cross-desktop apps I was developing for Windows, Linux, and macOS (as a Hackintosh).
>WSL2 is not really a VM though, in the traditional sense, as it has full hardware access
It is exactly a VM, and the WSL2 guest does not have full hardware access. The hypervisor can paravirtualize compatible GPUs, but for other hardware (such as USB) this is not possible. Hardware passthrough is also not possible in WSL2.
Sure, however in the traditional sense of most people using VMs, there is no virtualization of GPUs, ie vGPU, and thus no hardware acceleration, if you use something like VMWare or VirtualBox inside Windows. In a hypervisor setup like Proxmox, there is, but the issue is that you need one hardware device per VM, which can get annoying. So paravirtualization via WSL is actually, depending on your needs, superior to either of the previous two cases.
As someone stuck on a Windows corporate laptop, I can say that WSL2 is definitely not on the approved software list. Unless it installed by default and comes with a big solid green check mark for compliance/virus scanner/whatever security doo-dad of the day, it is a non-starter for many of us.
Sure, with enough begging and pleading, anything is possible, but that usually requires Conversations.
Sure, corporate laptops are always a different story. Ideally it's nice to have cross compilation but that might not always be possible. I use a lot of Rust and I really like their OS compatibility out of the box.
