31 engineers on Hacker News describe using Windows Subsystem for Linux first-hand: 12 endorse it, 1 regret it, 6 are mixed.
“now we can build on WSL with just some small changes to an env file because we run a psql container in a different way under wsl”
mixed · personal · 1oooqooq · 2025-05-19 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Windows, even with WSL, had lots of problems, including performance issues.”
regret · production · minimaul · 2023-12-30 · source ↗ · wrong label?“i have been using WSL for ages for development and i can't imagine anyone would target user applications at WSL”
endorse · personal · NationOfJoe · 2022-12-20 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using WSL for around 3+ years now... For front-end development I don't have any issues with it.”
endorse · personal · 3 yr · lukaszkups · 2021-12-10 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Honestly pretty happy with Windows 11/WSLg, which is nice since the app I'm supporting would be very difficult”
endorse · production · mdip · 2021-10-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“So I switched to the next best thing: Windows with WSL.”
endorse · personal · eknkc · 2020-12-25 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using WSL 1 and now 2 since it's been available”
mixed · personal · 4 yr · nickjj · 2020-12-14 · source ↗ · wrong label?“WSL2 had its bugs I was unable to use it then I had to do a cleanup in the Windows cached folders of older connections”
mixed · personal · ramon · 2020-09-06 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Works good in general with some bugs. The main issue is you can't run Docker on WSL.”
mixed · personal · diehunde · 2019-12-20 · source ↗ · wrong label?“the transition has been really good”
endorse · production · 0x54D5 · 2019-05-06 · source ↗ · wrong label?“WSL as a development environment is no longer slow... I've been using it for full time web app development for the last year”
endorse · production · 1 yr · nickjj · 2018-12-29 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I use Windows + WSL on a daily basis for web development.”
endorse · personal · 1 yr · Aaronmacaron · 2018-12-07 · source ↗ · wrong label?“So here I am using WSL on Windows 10, and you know what, it keeps getting better and better”
endorse · production · _coveredInBees · 2018-12-07 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using WSL now as my primary dev environment for about a year now and it's really good.”
endorse · production · 1 yr · nickjj · 2018-12-07 · source ↗ · wrong label?“while I'm enjoying the Ubuntu Subsystem on my machine, I somewhat regret opting in”
endorse · personal · sus_007 · 2017-12-19 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using WSL + wsltty [1] + Xming [2] for months and didn't encounter major issues.”
endorse · personal · lsc36 · 2017-12-12 · source ↗ · wrong label?“It's a mixed bag. You have a real Ubuntu environment with real package management, which is awesome”
mixed · personal · enjo · 2016-12-20 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Windows subsystem for linux is letting me get my work done with no problems.”
endorse · personal · yummyfajitas · 2016-12-16 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using Win10 w/ the Windows Subsystem for Linux almost exclusively for my Linux development... One big downside for me is that I cannot actually run the code I build locally”
mixed · production · 0.33 yr · hermitdev · 2016-12-06 · source ↗ · wrong label?“i just use it on my Pis and WSL installs for consistency.”
neutral · personal · queenkjuul · 2026-11-03 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Clients are all irssi on WSL2 or Macs.”
neutral · production · crinkly · 2025-08-03 · source ↗ · wrong label?“My team also uses Nix and devenv... on both macOS and WSL.”
neutral · production · pxc · 2024-11-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?“The way I access it is via Blink app on iPad/iPhone, the terminal on mac, WSL on Windows.”
neutral · personal · ricardobeat · 2022-12-28 · source ↗ · wrong label?“When one team member works on Windows, another in WSL, and a third in a Linux VM”
neutral · production · einpoklum · 2022-02-18 · source ↗ · wrong label?“to have a similar setup in prod and on my laptop with wsl”
neutral · personal · csdvrx · 2021-12-31 · source ↗ · wrong label?“there's one data scientist on windows, he uses WSL”
neutral · production · kortex · 2021-12-21 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using Tabby for the last three years as my daily driver on Windows, mainly with WSL.”
neutral · personal · 3 yr · throw-away-2022 · 2021-12-14 · source ↗ · wrong label?“Naturally started with WSL, then had a fairly productive tmux + fish + vim configuration”
neutral · personal · josephferano · 2021-09-02 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using the VcXsrv set up for years (in WSL 1 and now WSL 2).”
neutral · personal · nickjj · 2020-12-17 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I've been using it for quite a while now with terminal Vim in WSL”
neutral · personal · nickjj · 2019-12-23 · source ↗ · wrong label?“I use it less frequently now that Win10 has WSL & WSL 2, though”
neutral · personal · hermitdev · 2019-11-27 · source ↗ · wrong label?