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Ask HN: Is WSL2 stable enough for devs to switch from MacOS to Windows?
2 points by asenna on Oct 17, 2019 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments
For developers who've switched back to Windows, how is the experience like? Is WSL2 as smooth as actually working on Linux? or does it still crap out on random Node libraries at times (like on WSL1)?

I'm in the market for a new work laptop and a lot of people I know are in the same boat - holding onto older Macbook Pros (2015 and earlier) looking for alternatives, but scared to jump from MacOS. Obviously Apple is busy making the next pro devices thinner which is just.. wonderful for them.

Yes, switching to Linux is an option for many. But I also have to use Adobe CC tools which needs Windows (Wine is not a good option). Hence it's either dual-booting Linux/Windows or Windows full time as the two options for me.




WSL2 is not technically stable yet at all. It's still only in 20H1 Insider ["public beta"] builds for the version of Windows 10 to be released in the first half of 2020.

(WSL1 on the other hand has been stable and available for production versions of Windows 10 for months now. But yes, it has some known rough parts and performance issues expected to be smoothed over in WSL2 depending on your workflows and needs. Some of those have gone away with updates, WSL1 has seen some improvements over the months from some of the earliest horror reports, again all of which depending on your exact use cases.)


Actually docker for windows with docker compose workdir syncing might be enough. Gonna try it over the weekend




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