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WSL2 is literally a whole OS shipped alongside windows. (with nice integration done by the windows devs)

Regardless of the implementation, the fact that you have to use it in the first place instead of native windows tools speaks volumes about how useless windows is for development. I can not fathom how anyone can consider it anything other than an "escape hatch".

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For the type of work I do, Linux or Mac or WSL works. My preference also falls in that order, but WSL really does make Windows pretty painless for me. Now if they just ditch it all for Linux+WINE, that'd be great. ;-)

Strictly speaking, it's not a "whole OS shipped alongside windows".

It's an interop layer to allow you to interact with GNU based operating systems from Windows. Linux (or Debian etc.) is the OS.

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