Re: WSL for linux on Windows?
I also run Linux natively on my personal desktop and laptop. I typically refrain from doing any development on Windows systems and will go out of my way to find any method to circumvent it. I typically find that the Windows Terminal is sufficient enough for the development tasks I've need to complete. Though, it did take some adjusting to get used to the different CLI environment (setting environment variables, different CLI program arguments / options, etc...). I've worked on getting WSL set up on my personal desktop and attempted to do some C/C++ development but generally end up just shutting down my PC and booting into Debian. This is mostly due to the many "if-Windows-then" scenarios and the lack of complete control over the environment. I think we may all be familiar with the random occasion of attempting to delete a directory in Windows, only to be denied access even though there's only one user. In fact, I recently had to debug some issues on the Omega Edit codebase that were affecting the data editor capabilities within the Daffodil VSCode Extension. I was attempting to work within the WSL environment and was having a rough time because of the constant issues. First, there was an issue with trying to run a build.sh file and having bash syntax errors on the first line of the script. After spending some time trying to figure out why I found out that it was due to the \r\n newline and had to run `sed 's/\r$//' > build.sh` to resolve this. Second, I could never seem to get CMake to resolve the correct generator (Ninja) that I had installed on the WSL environment. I even tried installing CMake and Ninja on the Windows side of things and was still unable to resolve the issue. I ended up having to build using the CMake Windows default SDK. I haven't touched WSL since... I long for the day that companies hand out development Linux laptops. Developing on a Linux VM on Windows is often times just clunky and slow. I don't even want to think about having to develop anything on VMs that are accessed through the web browser... How could anyone get any work done with there is a constant 1-2 second graphical delay? TLDR; I found that it's too much of a setup / maintenance hassle to match the development efficacy of running a native Linux system. On 2024/01/30 19:22:14 Mike Beckerle wrote: > Is anyone doing development using WSL or WSL2 linux support? > > If so what is your experience with it? positive, negative, does it work > reliably? > > I have been having lots of freeze-ups using VMWare Workstation running > Ubuntu guest on windows host, and I'm starting to get pessimistic about > VMWare Workstation long term. > > I'd run Linux natively, but my employer requires that we use managed > laptops, but we can use Virtual Machines on them for development. > > Mike Beckerle > Apache Daffodil PMC | daffodil.apache.org > OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | www.ogf.org/ogf/doku.php/standards/dfdl/dfdl > Owl Cyber Defense | www.owlcyberdefense.com >
RE: WSL for linux on Windows?
We kind of do something along those lines with some added layers. I have VirtualBox installed on a windows laptop. I then have an Ubuntu WSL 2 that I run through Terminal/bash. I then have a tool called Vagrant installed on Windows and WSL where I can spin up and destroy various dev environments through the VagrantFile, some additional provisioning through Ansible to have basics like java, npm, etc already installed, and then using the VirtualBox WSL2 plugin https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant https://developer.hashicorp.com/vagrant/docs/other/wsl https://github.com/Karandash8/virtualbox_WSL2 Your box can be anything, used to use Centos6/7, but now use Rocky9. I then ssh into them using vagrant ssh and complete anything I need to do as you would any other VM. I just clone repos down and can build right from there on my provisioned box. If my dev environment ever acts up, I just destroy it and spin up a new one. Some people store their repos just in the home directory which is lost on destroy, but others will use /vagrant directory which is a shared folder between it and the host so they can use an IDE and still build through the box and have it backed up somewhere. You can use the Windows Remote Development extension pack to allow you to have some GUI apps to develop from the vagrant box or WSL just typing `code .` for example here is how you would use vscode. You can also use VcXsrv Windows X as an alternative. There are other apps available now as well. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/wsl-vscode https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack It's a bit of setup and moving parts, but once its setup, its fairly efficient and easy to get into and start working. This is also just one aspect of each of these tools and there's plenty to expand upon and fine tune to your own needs and customizations. I think the need for vagrant may or may not still be there as WSL improves with remote development, but it's nice to be able to quickly destroy and spin back to a known state and not fight with your WSL instance. I have not looked into these, but there is something similar you can do now with dev docker containers that looks really cool. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl#_advanced-opening-a-wsl-2-folder-in-a-container Another way would be through a Linux VDI through something like VMware Horizons, so that may be something you'd want to bring up with your IT department as an option, but there is cost and you may also get the added need of a VPN when remote. -Original Message- From: Mike Beckerle Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 2:22 PM To: dev@daffodil.apache.org Subject: WSL for linux on Windows? Is anyone doing development using WSL or WSL2 linux support? If so what is your experience with it? positive, negative, does it work reliably? I have been having lots of freeze-ups using VMWare Workstation running Ubuntu guest on windows host, and I'm starting to get pessimistic about VMWare Workstation long term. I'd run Linux natively, but my employer requires that we use managed laptops, but we can use Virtual Machines on them for development. Mike Beckerle Apache Daffodil PMC | daffodil.apache.org OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | http://www.ogf.org/ogf/doku.php/standards/dfdl/dfdl Owl Cyber Defense | http://www.owlcyberdefense.com/
WSL for linux on Windows?
Is anyone doing development using WSL or WSL2 linux support? If so what is your experience with it? positive, negative, does it work reliably? I have been having lots of freeze-ups using VMWare Workstation running Ubuntu guest on windows host, and I'm starting to get pessimistic about VMWare Workstation long term. I'd run Linux natively, but my employer requires that we use managed laptops, but we can use Virtual Machines on them for development. Mike Beckerle Apache Daffodil PMC | daffodil.apache.org OGF DFDL Workgroup Co-Chair | www.ogf.org/ogf/doku.php/standards/dfdl/dfdl Owl Cyber Defense | www.owlcyberdefense.com
