Is Anyone Else Developing on Windows with WSL2?

While I've always had a windows PC sitting around for casual use and playing video games, the developer experience always felt clunky.

Recently my Macbook was feeling sluggish and hot all the time, so I checked out WSL2 + Ubuntu + windows terminal and it's been so buttery smooth!

What are other peoples experiences?

Comments

[Brian Martin]

I use it every day... WSL2 seems way faster than WSL to me.

Great for managing Linux / K8s platforms
Also use it for Docker based development using VS and VSCode

[Mouaz Alabsawi]

I'm doing k8s on WSL2. Never thought something that new (May 2020 update) and from Microsoft would be that smooth and reliable. FYI, I use it only development for work

[Martin Knoll Haakansson]

I've been using it for a while now and I'm loving it.
I've only recently taking up Linux for my home office, however at work I need to be working in Windows 10, so it's great to have at least some of the power from Linux on a Windows System.

[An Rodriguez]

I think WSL is great. I use it almost exclusively for development.
I don't use win terminal, I use Cmder (ConEmu) instead. It's handy in so many ways. For example, you can paste a win path C:\my\folder and it gets converted automatically to Linux format /c/my/folder. By all means, try it out.
VSCode integrates with it perfectly.
Very, very important is that Docker works seamlessly in WSL2.

[Phil Tietjen]

I used to use Cmder before WSL way back. I remember it definitely did the trick and had a ton of customization options, my favorite being Quake Mode just for the giggles.

I haven't needed to mess with Docker yet, but I always remember that being a huge pain in the arse with windows so good to hear!

[scroung720]

For me, there are some ups and downs:
Pros:
-You can use Linux bash inside windows!!!
-You can install video games easily on your computer, comparing this situation with install on ubuntu very often I found that Ubuntu can't unleash all the power of my Nvidia GPU.
-It is easier to install general-purpose programs.
-You don't need to hack your laptop. It is highly probable that your laptop is designed to be used with windows.
-You can mix native windows applications with the ubuntu command line. I have installed Photoshop. You can use bash Linux inside VS code.
Cons:
-There are some programs with GUI that you can't use out of the box there is a way to render those in windows but I haven't done that yet. For example, I was learning electron and it didn't work. The reason was that I was using my VS Code in WSL mode
-I have found troubles connecting databases.
-I wish I could use bash Linux for all folders by default.
-If you install extensions on VS Code WSL are not automatically install on VS Code Windows this sucks. So you need to sync them.