Awesome WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux ![Awesome][awesomelogo]

An Awesome collection of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) information, distributions, and tools.

WSL Screenshot

Overview
Using WSL
Supported Distributions
Unofficial Distributions
WSL Tools
Books
Additional Resources
Related Projects
More Awesome
Thanks
Intellectual Property Notices

Overview

1. Linux

Linux is a UNIX-like open-source operating system. The core of Linux is a kernel developed by Linus Torvalds. Linux also includes a wide array of applications built on top of the kernel, including web servers, compilers, and e-mail clients, developed and contributed to the Linux ecosystem by a worldwide community of programmers. These applications are then assembled together into Linux distributions by companies, communities, and individuals.

2. Linux Distributions

Unlike Windows or macOS there are many different Linux distributions, each of which is assembled with different approaches to the software selection and implementation. For example, the goal of the non-profit volunteer Debian Project community is to produce a universal free operating system, while the goal of the for-profit SUSE is to provide a stable enterprise platform. There are also Linux distributions based on other distributions. Ubuntu is a distribution based on Debian built by the company Canonical. Kali is a distribution based on Debian built with an emphasis on tools for network security testing. You can see the most popular distributions ranked at DistroWatch.

3. Windows

Windows is a family of proprietary operating systems, all of which are developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft. Currently Windows 10 is Microsoft's flagship operating system. Windows 10 is available for Intel x86-based and arm64-based PCs. The Windows Subsystem for Linux first shipped in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, version number 1607, in August 2016. WSL can be enabled for free on all versions of Windows 10 after 1607, including Home, Professional, Enterprise, Server, LTSB, and Education. Originally only available for Intel x86-based PCs, Ubuntu 18.04 for arm64 was made available on the Microsoft store in May 2018.

4. WSL1

The original WSL is now known as WSL1. WSL1 is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables (ELF) natively on Windows 10. No re-compilation or 'porting' of applications is required. WSL1 provides a Linux-compatible kernel interface developed by Microsoft that allows a user to choose a Linux distribution to install from the Microsoft Store. WSL1 executes unmodified Linux ELF64 binaries by operating a Linux kernel interface on top of the Windows kernel in Windows 10. The WSL1 interface translates Linux system calls from the binaries into Windows system calls and then executes them at native speed. Linux applications run within the Linux distribution which provides the application's dependencies and package management in a container-like environment. WSL provides an interface to mount drives within WSL.

5. WSL2

WSL2 was announced at Microsoft Build 2019. WSL2 features a Linux kernel running inside Windows and is built on the core technology of Hyper-V to provide better Linux application support and improved file system performance. Transitioning to WSL2 is seamless. WSL2 is set by default since Windows 11.

Announcing WSL2 - Microsoft blog announcing WSL2
The new Windows subsystem for Linux architecture: a deep dive - WSL2 presentation at Microsoft Build 2019
WSL2-Linux-Kernel - The source for the Linux kernel used in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

6. Emulation

Windows Subsystem for Linux is not an emulator or virtualizer like VirtualBox. WSL1 is closer in its approach to Wine which is a compatibility layer to run Windows binaries on Linux by re-implementing Windows system and API calls in libraries.

7. Details

You want the gritty details? Here they are:

Windows Subsystem for Linux Overview at MSDN.
WSL File System Support at MSDN.
WSL System Calls at MSDN.
Windows and Ubuntu Interoperability at MSDN.
WSL Antivirus and Firewall Compatibility at MSDN.
WSL Release Notes from docs.microsoft.com.
Windows Subsystem for Linux Documentation from docs.microsoft.com.
Windows Subsystem for Linux - Update from Microsoft Developer YouTube channel.
Windows for Linux Nerds from Microsoft developer Jessie Frazelle.

8. Installation

WSL1 Installation Guide - Microsoft's official guide for WSL.
Windows Server Installation Guide - Microsoft's official guide for Windows Server.
Windows-Subsystem-For-Linux-Setup - A basic guide for how to get setup with the WSL feature that is included with Windows 10. ![github project][githublogo]

9. Use Cases

WSL is undoubtedly a tool for power-users, developers, and *NIX/Linux geeks who want to run Windows. Most of the things you can do with WSL are going to be related to programming, the console, sysadmin, automation, AI/data science, and other geeky things.

10. GUI Apps

Yes, a suprising number of Linux GUI apps can run on WSL. GUI applications are officially supported on WSL2 with Windows Insider Preview since Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21286. It will also be available in Windows 10's fall 2021 release, and Windows 11. The GUI capabilities of WSL2 are informally referred to as WSLg.

If you have an earlier release of Windows 10, then running a GUI app on WSL requires an operational X server on Windows. This must be downloaded, installed, and running for your GUI app to open from WSL; or it will complain that it cannot find a display. X servers for Windows include X410 💰 (very highly recommended), VcXsrv, GWSL, or Xming on Windows 10.

11. Systemd

On September 21st 2022, Microsoft announced[1] official support for systemd in WSL2 disributions. As of version 0.67.6 of WSL2, you can now enable booting with systemd in WSL, enabling support for services and applications like snap.

[1]: The announcement was published in Microsoft's tech/dev blog Windows Command Line. You can view the article here for more details on systemd support in WSL 2.

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Using WSL

The WSL Shell

Everything You Can Do With Windows 10’s New Bash Shell
The Unix Workbench - A book for anyone to get started with Unix/Linux environments.
The Art of Command Line - Master the command line in one page. ![github project][githublogo]
The Bash Academy - The Bash Academy is an initiative to promote the bash shell language and educate people on its use.
Awesome Command Line Apps ![Awesome][awesomelogo] ![github project][githublogo]

Programming on WSL

Every developer has a unique workflow. Windows and WSL enable developers to carefully customize their setup for their unique workflow. The following are different developers' approaches to creating their development environments using WSL and instructions on how to do the same:

Epic Development Environment Using Windows Subsystem for Linux - One developer's approach to their development environment using WSL1.
Far More Epic Development Environment using WSL2
Setting Up a Programming Environment via Windows 10 Bash - From the computer science department at Old Dominion University.
WSL as a Development Environment - From the computer science department at University of Utah. ![github project][githublogo]
Using WSL and MobaXterm to Create a Linux Dev Environment on Windows - Another developer's approach using the third-party terminal MobaXterm.
Setting up my WSL Environment - Azure CLI, Docker and .NET
ubuntu-win-boostrap - A very simple bootstrap script to install some development basic tools on Debian/Ubuntu on WSL. ![github project][githublogo]
Badass Terminal

To learn more about programming generally, visit curated-programming-resources.

Microsoft makes free development tools available, publishes programming guides through MSDN, and offers courses through edX and Microsoft Virtual Academy.

Web Development on WSL

Because WSL allows developers to run a variety of Linux server applications locally on their Windows machine, WSL is uniquely useful for web, cloud, and other server-side development tasks. The following are different developers' approaches to creating their web development environment using WSL and instructions on how to do the same:

We put Linux in your Windows - YouTube talk by Windows kernel team member Sarah Cooley on WSL for Windows.
Setting Up Windows for Web Development.
How to Install LAMP Stack Server on Windows Subsystem Linux.

CUDA Development on WSL

WSL allows for CUDA usage in the Linux environment for machine learning, intense mathematics or related uses. In order to activate CUDA inside WSL, Windows 11 or Windows 10 with version 21H2 support is required. WSL2 is required along with the 5.10 kernel which is available through wsl --update command.

CUDA drivers and toolkit are required to be installed on Windows. 11.7 is recommended.
Section 3 will instruct how to install the CUDA requirements inside WSL. Do not install a driver inside WSL. The Windows driver will be used through the 5.10 kernel.

You can test the install after following the above steps through PyTorch (torch.cuda.is_available()) or similar tools. Another option is using the NVIDIA CUDA Samples.

Other WSL Uses

Arduino setup checklist - Checklist to connect Arduino board from WSL 1.
Learning programming, computer science, and system administration generally.
Building applications for Azure, Microsoft's cloud platform.
Leveraging the power of the shell and scripting to automate your personal workflow, like OCRing and sorting PDFs into folders using