Windows and Linux: Together at Last?

How to run Linux and Windows at the same time on the same machine featuring the new WSL2 subsystem, which allows multiple Linux distributions and Windows itself to share the same hardware at the same time.

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[Eric-kxdo]

I did real-time system development on AmigaDos back in the 90s. It was amazing how fast and efficient the OS was running on fairly low end hardware.

[AdenMocca]

Best video on WSL setup and use - definitely interested in the speed test. I've listened to people who work on the WSL project in podcasts and none of them layed down the underlying technologies as clearly as you did. Very good work!

[marcinx]

Moving to WSL2 was one of the first steps I undertook when moving towards cloud/data engineer roles. It helped me in learning filesystem and basic linux commands. I'm using WSL2 for most of my portfolio projects.

Thx for the video to spread the word Dave!

[germancaperarojas]

Man, freaking killer video. Didn't knew about wsl. Can't wait to push those commands to my test machine.

[erkinalp]

Certain points not mentioned in the video:

"sudo apt upgrade" actually only upgrades packages that can safely be upgraded without removing any. For a full upgrade, you should use "sudo apt dist-upgrade" instead.
"sudo service apache2 start" invokes systemd under the hood. To invoke systemd more directly, you should use "systemctl start apache2" (without sudo, as systemctl will ask for elevation by itself if necessary) instead.

[rh]

Dave, many thanks in advance for the drag-racing episode.

I'd also like to know how memory and disk/filesystem are being partitioned, as well as GPU. I'm hoping you will include at least one game performance (FPS) analysis in your drag-racing episode. The thought of frankensteining two+ personalities on one computer motherboard is interesting, but invites many a question.

How does the clipboard get shared between linux/windows? What about drag and drop?

Perhaps there is room for an episode dedicated to the downsides of WSL2. So far you've mentioned a few that seem acceptable compromises for me, but each viewer would have their own expectations.

[JuanManuelCuchilloRodriguez]

I use WSL2 every day for work. I actually run many GPU based AI libraries using Windows 11 + WSL2 + Docker + NVIDIA Container. It is easy and simple.

[TheRhazhiel]

Amazing video, i have experimented with WSL, but you manage to pack a deep dive into 16 mins. Cheers Dave!

[Immudzen]

Great video. I love seeing more stuff on WSL. WSL completely changed how I did the research for my PhD and it made a huge difference. I even used WSL2 and fuse to mount a remote computer over ssh as a directory on Linux and share it to Windows. It made it easy to drag and drop files, check results and all over an encrypted connection completely transparently.

[illya]

As someone who cares about privacy, free software, the customisation, and the Linux security model, WSL is not an option for me, I prefer getting the parts of Windows I need through Wine instead.
But when I am required by work example to run Windows, I am very grateful to still have access to Linux via WSL. and have grown to appreciate it together with Windows Terminal a lot.

[bertnijhof]

I run Linux and Windows side by side since 2009 using Virtualbox. My oldest still running VMs are Windows XP Home (Dutch version) and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, both installed and activated in April 2010. Those VMs survived 3 PCs and 4 CPUs (Pentium 4 HT; Phenom X3; Phenom II X4 and Ryzen 3 2200G). My Host OS is a minimal install of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on the OpenZFS 2.1.4 file system.
The most frequently used VMs are:
- Xubuntu 22.04 LTS for all communication apps (email; whatsapp; skype; kdeconnect; etc), the VM is loaded almost always.
- Ubuntu 16.04 ESM used exclusively for my financials. The VM is encrypted, supported till 2026 and it uses the latest snaps for Firefox and LibreOffice.
- Windows XP Home to play the wma copies of my LPs and CDs with WoW and TrueBass effects.
My other main VMs are:
- Ubuntu Studio 20.04 LTS for multimedia.
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS for trying new apps and for experiments, like running Dosshell; WordPerect 5.1 and Wolfenstein-3D in DOSBOX :)
- Windows 11 Pro.

The hardware from early 2019 is a Ryzen 3 2200G; 16GB DDR4 (3000MHz); 512GB SP nvme-SSD (3400/2300MB/s) and some leftovers from the Phenoms; 500GB and 1TB HDDs supported by 128GB sata-SSD now used as cache (L2ARC). For OpenZFS the memory cache (L1ARC) is limited to 4GB. All storage and all caches are lz4 compressed. Linux OSes boot in 9 to 14 seconds, Windows XP in ~16 to 25 seconds and Windows 11 in 20 to 30 seconds all dependent on the L1ARC memory cache content of the Host.

My all time favorite OSes are available as VBox VM and they are: Windows for Workgroups 3.11; Windows XP Home; Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS/ESM :)

[cyndicorinne]

As a former computer science professor, I like your concise description of the WSL and what it means for the user. As well, I had a professor when I was in college for operating systems who was also quite practical, and the text was Custer’s Inside Windows NT. All to say, I’m really enjoying your videos. Not only the windows related ones but also the interview with the Commodore 64 developer.

[midtskogen]

I switched from AmigaOS to Linux in 1992 and have never been a Windows user besides having to use NT (saved by cygwin) a few months for work in the mid 90's (NT was in my opinion the first proper modern OS from Microsoft). It's nice to see how far Windows has come since the days when it basically was a messy DOS application which could be ignored if it wasn't for the pain of buying a PC without having to pay for Windows. If only it could become as easy as in this video to install and use Windows on a Linux computer.

[podunkis]

Great video. I was already familiar with WSL, yet almost everything you covered was of value to me. This is one of those videos that is practical on its own, but it also gives you enough information to more effectively start the deep-dive process.

[franciscopires]

Excelent video!! I would love to hear more Commodore Amiga stories :)

[unvergebeneid]

WSL is an amazing technology and makes Windows much more useful!

[matthyslaubscher]

Mr Plummer. Please never stop sharing content and your opinions/thoughts. Thank you for everything upto now. Thank 👍

[colingale]

Thankyou sooo much for the tip on WSl2 and serial ports, that was the last hurdle for me to import my full linux dev environment into windows.

[henrybecker]

Thank you Dave. That was very interesting and educational.

[NadRadio]

As a French learning English, your videos are very helpful to improve my understanding of English, but also to learn so many things about OS we use everyday. Thanks for that!