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Comment by justinc8687 | Hacker News Reader

How is this better than just running vcxsrv and inside WSL setting DISPLAY=WINDOWS_HOST_IP:0? I've been doing this to run graphical linux apps for a couple years now, both on WSL1 and on a regular Hyper-V Linux VM.

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DPI scaling (especially per-monitor DPI) is much much better, it it actually handled better than native Linux

With hardware acceleration and CUDA?

And audio?

I am yet unsure how it is able to use "hardware acceleration" considering it is using RDP.

It just works?

It seamlessly works with VcXsrv too after you set your DISPLAY. I've been using it for years too, even back in 2018 while running Sublime Text within WSL 1 as a primary code editor.

If you place your VcXsrv config in your Windows startup folder everything automatically works. I haven't touched my config in years. The machine boots and it's all good, complete with proper clipboard sharing so you can copy things to and from WSL.

I could never get VcXsrv to work with DPI scaling well. So many hacks upon hacks...

That's fair enough. I have a 2560x1440 display but I run it at 1:1 native scaling, everything updates quickly with no flickering or tearing. I've found in general using display scaling anywhere is always a questionable experience since not every app is developed to take advantage of it.

That's doable on 1440p, but IMO it's a dealbreaker on 4k.

Absolutely. That's why I bought and recommend[0] a 1440p monitor unless you plan to use a 32-36" 4k display which IMO is a bit too big. The 1440p monitor I use is 25" and feels just right because it requires minimal head / eye movement to see everything.

[0]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-fo...

Fonts look much better on 4k screens with 2x scaling than on 1440p: https://tonsky.me/blog/monitors/

If you stare at text all day, 4k is pretty nice. The difference between 4k and 1440p is easily noticeable to me even on very small displays, like 15" laptops. I have a 1440p gaming laptop, and the less-sharp text is slightly annoying; I otherwise love it as a laptop, though, so I live with 1440p since it's a fairly small screen anyway. On larger displays like an external monitor I definitely wouldn't use 1440p.

From what I understand 200% 4k is the same screen real estate as 1080p. It's a trade off I suppose. I would much prefer 1440p on a smaller monitor (like a 25") which offers pretty good DPI. I can read HN's text at 1:1 scaling from around 3 feet away and I wear glasses, 4 feet is doable too but it starts to get blurry. In my day to day I stand a little further than an arm's length away.

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