I’m setting up a local AI development environment on Windows + WSL2 and I’m trying to decide between two architectures.
Option 1 — Ollama/Models on Windows
WSL2
┌───────────────────┐
│ Application │
│ ├── Python │
│ ├── .venv │
│ └── Source code │
└───────┬───────────┘
│
HTTP localhost:11434
│
▼
Windows
┌───────────────┐
│ Ollama │
│ ↓ │
│ Models │
│ ↓ │
│ GPU │
└───────────────┘
Option 2 — Ollama/Models inside WSL2
WSL2
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Application │
│ ↓ │
│ Ollama │
│ ↓ │
│ Models │
└────────────┬────────────┘
│
GPU access
│
▼
Windows
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ GPU / Driver │
└─────────────────────────┘
My current setup is Option 1, and it works: WSL2 can access the Windows Ollama API through localhost:11434.
But I’m wondering if Option 2 is a better long-term architecture for local AI/LLM development.
I’m especially interested in:
🚀 Performance
🎮 GPU utilization
🧠 Model management
💾 Disk usage
🔧 Setup and maintenance
🐧 Linux/ML tooling
🐳 Docker integration
🌐 Networking
📈 Future scalability
If you use Ollama with Windows + WSL2, which architecture would you choose and why?
And if you've actually used both setups, I'd especially like to hear about your experience.
👇 Option 1 or Option 2?
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