As it happens, the itch resurfaced and i just discovered winboat! It appears to be the exact counterpart to WSL, what a lovely symmetry.

I built my desktop. I do own an unused retail windows licence, and i think I've even activated windows on this box, but the key is not in the BIOS. I'm curious how that's going to work.

Tangent, in case my folly gives you a chuckle: my mouse, of the windows-only reprogramming tool, is a zerotes c18. I got busy with a dremel and did a _side project_ on it, only to discover that the thumbstick has only 1-key rollover. It's useless as a controller pad because it only supports the cardinal directions. I am a silly billy.