What is WSL used for?
The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a feature of the Windows operating system that enables you to run a Linux file system, along with Linux command-line tools and GUI apps, directly on Windows, alongside your traditional Windows desktop and apps. See the about page for more details.
What is difference between WSL and WSL2?
Whereas WSL 1 used a translation layer that was built by the WSL team, WSL 2 includes its own Linux kernel with full system call compatibility. Benefits include: A whole new set of apps that you can run inside of WSL, such as Docker and more. Any updates to the Linux kernel are immediately ready for use.
Is WSL 32 or 64 bit?
WSL doesn’t support 32-bit apps! No, we don’t support x86 32-bit at this time: We currently depend on x64-only instructions and mechanisms to ensure fast & stable performance.
Is WSL faster than VM?
While WSL 2 actually uses the Linux kernel running under Hyper-V, you won’t have as much of a performance hit than with a VM because you aren’t running most of the other processes that run on a Linux system. You can run WSL with less memory than you would need for a virtual machine.
Is WSL a container?
With the WSL 2 backend supported in Docker Desktop for Windows, you can work in a Linux-based development environment and build Linux-based containers, while using Visual Studio Code for code editing and debugging, and running your container in the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows.
Why is WSL slow?
WSL2 uses the 9P protocol to access Windows drives, and it is currently known to be very slow when compared to: Native NTFS (obviously) The ext4 filesystem on the virtual disk used by WSL2. And even the performance of WSL1 with Windows drives.
Is WSL a virtual machine?
In September 2018, Microsoft said that “WSL requires fewer resources (CPU, memory, and storage) than a full virtual machine” (which prior to WSL was the most direct way to run Linux software in a Windows environment), while also allowing users to use Windows apps and Linux tools on the same set of files.
How do you tell if I have WSL 1 or 2?
To ensure that WSL 2 is enabled in your system, open the Windows command prompt and run the below-mentioned command:
- > wsl -l -v.
- > wsl –list –verbose.
- > wsl –set-default-version 2.
What are the limitations of WSL?
While WSL is very useful, there are some downsides that some people in the Linux community worry about.
- WSL Could Discourage Desktop Linux Adoption.
- Remote Possibility of Microsoft Dominating Linux.
- WSL Could Discourage Native App Development.
- You’re Still Using Windows.
- WSL Is Not Really Designed for Servers.
Does WSL use GPU?
With NVIDIA CUDA support for WSL 2, developers can leverage NVIDIA GPU accelerated computing technology for data science, machine learning and inference on Windows through WSL.
Can I run Docker in WSL?
However, since WSL 2 now runs on a Linux kernel with full system call capacity, Docker can fully run in WSL 2. This means that Linux containers can run natively without emulation, resulting in better performance and interoperability between your Windows and Linux tools.
Is WSL2 a Docker container?
With Docker Desktop running on WSL 2, users can leverage Linux workspaces and avoid having to maintain both Linux and Windows build scripts. In addition, WSL 2 provides improvements to file system sharing, boot time, and allows access to some cool new features for Docker Desktop users.