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I'm surprised they didn't go the WSL2 route from the start. Seems much easier to do.

But WSL is so cool and since I mostly run windows in VMs without nested virtualization support I've pretty much only used that one and am super thankful for it.

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I think (but am not sure) that WSL was a consolation prize of the cancelled Project Astoria, the initiative from the dying days of Windows Phone to support running Android apps on Windows. Implementing this with virtualisation would have been more painful and less practical on the smartphones of the day.

Honestly, before WSL 1 was a thing, Cygwin already existed, and it was good enough for most people.

Cygwin is capable but I feel WSL is a total game changer.

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