Re: WSL keeps getting better, and it's because Microsoft is finally admitting where developers want to be

On Sat, 4 Jul 2026 18:41:39 -0000 (UTC), Robert Heller wrote:

>> <https://www.xda-developers.com/wsl-keeps-getting-better-and-its-because-microsoft-is-finally-admitting-where-developers-want-to-be/>
>> 
> It is also *probably* too little too late.

Quote:

    ... Microsoft really does need to make its OS comfortable for
    Linux developers to work in, because the alternative involves
    people ditching Windows entirely. For Microsoft to maintain its
    user base, it has to ensure that its operating system can do
    everything better than its competitors, and if that includes
    allowing people to code Linux apps instead of using its own tools,
    then that's what it needs to do.

But if what its operating system is supposedly “doing better than
competitors” is “running a Linux stack”, then pretty much by
definition, native Linux itself will always do that better than any
Windows-with-Linux-bag-hanging-off-the-side two-headed FrankenOS can
manage.

But yes, a hybrid environment does at least offer some sense of
familiarity to those who have spent too long in the Windows world --
easier than jumping straight into the deep end of a pure-Linux
environment.

In other words, all Microsoft can do, really, is help ease the
transition away from Windows to Linux. Instead of slowing the move by
making the Windows environment more attractive to stay with for just a
little bit longer, it could, paradoxically, help to speed it up.

The final section heading spells it out: “WSL is Microsoft admitting
that developers want to be elsewhere”. No two ways about it.