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Discussion on: Windows 10 as a Linux Window Manager with WSL2

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tehmoros profile image
Piotr "MoroS" Mrożek • Edited

It's true. The real window manager in this setup is the X11 server running on Windows (it's this piece of the puzzle making the shots to Windows API). It's actually quite easy to set up though (install and launch on Windows, set the DISPLAY environment variable in WSL). It has it's cons though: forget cross-developing OpenGL apps in that manner. The best you get is OpenGL 1.4, which is very basic.

Still, that toolbar integration is quite nice and useful. :)

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fquinner profile image
fquinner

It's a window manager in the sense that Gnome is a window manager or KDE is a window manager or (my beloved and preferred) i3 is a window manager. May be technically debatable but it's a common use of the term (i3's domain name is i3wm.org where wm stands for "window manager", but it sits on top of X11 too).

In this instance, I'd call X11 the window server, but Windows is still the window manager for the system. Those are still Windows'... well... windows. They'll show up with alt + tab etc. and they'll appear in the toolbar. The communication with WSL is via X11 protocols though.

And it's cool - Wayland is coming which should provide more options too - this is merely a convenience script to make launching feel more native :)

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tehmoros profile image
Piotr "MoroS" Mrożek

Agreed. :) I didn't want to go into too much detail and it came out a bit different than what I meant.