Going from Linux to Windows is not easy. When it came to working, nothing could beat the power of the commandline and my legendary vim config (as i so fitted has named it).
Why Windows?
I recently bought me a Dell XPS 15. Really nice computer. However it seems that Dell has implemented some nice features, which to my knowledge only works on a Windows distribution. Sucks when i spent so much time mastering the vim+zsf.
The linux subsystem for windows brought light to my weary bones though, and i will teach you how you can harness the true power of Windows (Which is a linux VM).
To harness the power of the linux gods you will have to finish the tasks of three.
- Activate The linux subsystem for windows.
- Install a linux distro from the windows store(i use ubuntu)
- Install the WSL extension for VSCode.
Activate the linux subsystem
This is done by searching for "Turn windows features on or off" and checking the linux subsystem option.
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Install the linux
Simple, get it, run it, love it.
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Notes on the linux distro
this will come with git preinstalled, but i have compiled a set of nice to have features which you can copy paste to your WSL terminal to get to the godlike level of linux terminal control.
- Oh my ZSH link
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
- Node version manager link
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh | bash
NOTE: if you installed oh my zsh first, it will add the NVM to the path.
- Yarn package manager link
curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends yarn
We will use the --no-install-recommends since we use NVM as our node host. Otherwise delete the flag.
- Node and NPM link
nvm install <version number>
The Visual Studio code part
Now this is where the magic happends, in VS Code install the plugin WSL
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Now Simple ctrl-shift-p and search WSL and click open vscode in wsl.
VS code will then start a server in WSL and keep VSCode as a frontend.
If you open a terminal in the new vs code window it will open in the linux bash, and you are now free to keep bash or install zsh and be a linux god on Windows.
This should cover all the basic of getting to use WSL in Windows.
If you like WSL in windows with VS code, leave a comment below or show some love!
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