So I’ve recently been interested in doing a complete switch from Windows to Ubuntu, and I’ve been playing around with WSL2 in Windows quite a bit and I have to admit I am pretty impressed with their implementation.
However, one of the reasons I’ve been drawn to Linux these days is the privacy aspect, and I’m looking to get everyone’s thoughts on whether using Linux apps in WSL improves your privacy at all, or do I need to just flat out get off windows to get any sort of privacy benefit. My plan is to eventually get off Windows completely, but I guess I’m wondering if WSL is a good middle ground.
Between using wsl to run apps and using windows, I think there’s little benefit when talking about privacy. Most open source apps have windows version so you can start your migration without formatting, getting used to the ecosystem and when you change, you won’t miss anything.
Windows has complete access to the WSL file system, so there’s zero privacy improvement. If you’re concerned with privacy, take a look at Arch Linux or Gentoo to install only the components you want, or if you are looking for extreme privacy, check out Tails or possibly QubesOS. Those are probably not the place to start learning about Linux but you mentioned privacy. Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. all have telemetry and crap built in so if you want privacy/anonymity you should look at other systems like the ones I mentioned. Have fun, good luck.
I’ll also add to this that WSL is a security nightmare. If something manages to dig its way into your wsl install and add, for example, WINE, there’s no end to the (hidden to your av) mischief it can enact.
WSL2 is good, but not usable in all scenarios. IIRC, it can’t use systemd services. It is also very slow with file I/O, which is not a problem with small datasets, but some of the git repos I work with are so big that git operations take a couple of minutes to complete in WSL2, but only take a second or so in PowerShell. If you are doing a full backup of your PC with rsync or something like that, it could take days to complete something that would take only 30 minutes or so running in a native Windows shell.
Wish I could say that was an improvement.
ok so far I gather that its a no lol
WSL is not Linux. Has none of the advatanges of Linux. Fuck windows
Well, that’s just not true. WSL indeed is not Linux, but it does have several of the advantages of Linux.
It is not good if you want a home desktop solution, because that’s not what it’s there for. However, if you need to use Windows for something, e.g., at work to have full outlook MS office compatibility (access through the web is not great) but need Linux for dev work then WSL is great.
In short, I’d say WSL is there if you want to do dev work on Linux, but everything else on Windows.
