
Announcing WSL 2 - MikusR
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/announcing-wsl-2/
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benaadams
> File intensive operations like git clone, npm install, apt update, apt
> upgrade, and more will all be noticeably faster. The actual speed increase
> will depend on which app you’re running and how it is interacting with the
> file system. Initial tests that we’ve run have WSL 2 running up to 20x
> faster compared to WSL 1 when unpacking a zipped tarball, and around 2-5x
> faster when using git clone, npm install and cmake on various projects.

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MikusR
They are moving from reimplementing syscalls to running full Linux kernel
inside of a "lightweight utility virtual machine"

~~~
sebazzz
So how does that VM work behind the scenes? Somehow, things still need to be
written to a disk and go through the filesystem minifilters don't they?

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sciurus
This is marked as a dupe, but searching I don't see another discussion.

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Announcing%20WSL%202&sort=byDa...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Announcing%20WSL%202&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0)

Edit: it's
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19842817](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19842817)

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Analemma_
Wow, this isn’t a translation layer anymore, this is just a straight-up built-
from-source Linux kernel inside Windows. O brave new world.

I’ve seen a couple people wondering why Microsoft doesn’t just ship a Linux
distro with a Win32 compatibility layer on top of it, and it seems like that
speculation is only going to increase now. Windows is still a long way from
that, but unmistakably drifting in that direction.

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scjosh
Having just switched my home desktop from Windows/Linux dualboot, to full
Linux, this kind of makes me want to switch back to Windows. My only grievance
is nvidia driver support lacking on Linux at the moment.

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freedrull
So they are writing their own kernel, but moving to using a VM? Why not use an
existing kernel if they are moving to using a VM...?

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resoluteteeth
It sort of seems like a shame to throw out the entire approach and move to
something vm-based when it was already working so well, but I guess if it
improves both performance and compatibility it makes sense?

~~~
topspin
This started as "Bash On Windows," got embiggened to WSL and now we're finally
where it probably should have started; a tightly integrated VM running a
genuine Linux kernel. This also obviates some of the shade that has been
thrown at Microsoft's effort because this is no longer a reimplementation of
the Linux kernel.

So both technical and political improvements. I have few complaints.

~~~
earenndil
What's wrong with re-implementing the linux kernel? Why would people not like
that?

~~~
topspin
> What's wrong with re-implementing the linux kernel?

I don't know that there is anything _wrong_ with it. I do know there are those
that don't care to see Microsoft rehosting the Linux ecosystem on a
proprietary kernel and have seen WSL as more 'embrace, extend, extinguish'
behavior. One imagines that view must moderate some given that Microsoft is
now relying on the genuine GPL licensed kernel.

I believe I've hit my daily weasel word limit.

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bovermyer
This is a _great_ update!

...I'm still running Linux bare when possible, though.

