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Discussion on: Install Docker on Windows (WSL) without Docker Desktop

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tempcke profile image
Todd Empcke

I'll never understand why developers who write code to run in linux fight with windows. Just run linux native. This isn't the 90's anymore, it is really super easy to run linux on your local dev machine and every program you would want for dev that is worth running already runs on linux.

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Karoly Negyesi of House AstraZeneca

I will readily admit being a Linux newbie despite I installed Slackware with Linux 0.99pl15 for the first time from a stack of floppies early 1994. I am still running Linux on servers to this day. I ran Linux dual boot from 2000-2004 and then as a daily driver 2004-2017. It was a miserable experience. The choices are running Ubuntu where upgrading every six months shatters your OS so badly you can't work for days or Arch where upgrades often break one of your printer/scanner/Bluetooth. Connecting to any sort of enterprise-y VPN or WiFi just doesn't work. I don't care whether it's the fault of F5 or the community for not working -- if I can't VPN in, I can't work.

So the reason I use Windows is because that's where the driver support is. Plain and simple. And I use WSL2 because Linux excels at CLI and daemons.

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marzelin profile image
Marc Ziel

Fight? There's no fight between Windows and Linux since wsl2. It's a peaceful symbiosis.

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John Tal

somewhat peaceful, but following DOCKER0 from WSL2 out to the host network has issues in some configurations with Docker Desktop where installing docker directly into WSL works.

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Kris Kater

^^ This.

Stop running Windows unless you really have to.

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Robert Myers

I work on client/server software. The client is Windows; the server is not.

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Ahmed Hafiz

I have tried with multiple laptops (and multiple distros) and even with so many customisations, laptops keep heating up on idle.
Not so ideal for development with that heat on my hand . I do wish it'd change some day. Been waiting for years now.

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b-hayes • Edited

That sounds odd. Ive been running WSL on potato laptops and now I high end one with no heat issues at all.

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billybraga

Here are the problems I had on Ubuntu (note that I really wanted to work on linux since our servers run on linux) :

  • lack of proper bluetooth drivers (mSBC not supported, so headset sound was crap)
  • software support
    • Teams would not switch to headset mode automatically, nor detect when BT headset was connected after app was opened)
    • no edit and continue on .net core (and no, I won't change the language we write at work)
  • watching 4K videos on my 4K screen had tearing (and yes, watching videos on my break is a requirement)
  • regular system freeze
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bhayes profile image
b-hayes

Windows can do a lot of things linux cant and has a lot of cutting edge hardware support. Sometimes you need this simple as that.
However I agree developing linux apps with docker on windows can be a pain I'd recommend just installing linux on a dedicated machine for that purpose if you can.

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Sebastien Lemieux

Corporate.

We tried. But I have other things to do than spend my time trying to argue with people that we should be allowed to get Linux machines on our corporate network.

The only option that we had is to run a corporate-managed VM on Azure, with their own "linux" which is a special build from oracle that I never heared of before they mentionned it, and where no open source tools seems to offer any kind of support.

WSL is the only option that I have. HyperV is not stable enough on Linux, and VirtualBox is blocked by corporate rules.

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bodhione profile image
John Tal

Todd, many people are provisioned corporate laptops. In many regions also you cannot get a linux or Mac from the company, only Windows. WSL2 is, generally, better than the old cygwin many of us used decades ago. So no, it's not an automatic that developers get to use the best OS ever made.

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Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Edited

Usually because I need

  • Proprietary software, not limited to MS Word and PowerPoint. I still need to work and discuss with non-dev people, you know.
  • Best possible hardware drivers by default
  • I love POSIX as well, but I don't have a choice. macOS is expensive to buy (yet mainstream), as well as forced obsolescence (via OS updates + requirement, and repair / replacement prevention); not to mention keyboard layout confusion (which is "cost to change").

But yes, I used WSL2 enough that moved to a second PC with native Linux.

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Jonathan Bowman

I am familiar with those circumstances.

For me, using WSL isn't a choice against Linux, but a choice to use Linux everywhere. A Linux dev machine is quite desirable. Even with that, I will still run WSL on any Windows machine I can. Because I do a lot from the command line, and I often want that command line to be Linux, no matter the location or network connectivity.