Let's normalise using WSL for all such command-line utilities. Everyone's life will be easier, from developrs to users.
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Windows developers are perfectly fine without WSL.
WSL is meant for UNIX developers to bring their habits into non-UNIX OS, just like IBM mainframes and micros have PASE.
Aren't that many pure windevs left these days... In many professional circles Windows itself is no more than a vintage curiosity.
So in many ways, WSL is a survival strategy - it makes it possible to stay a relevant developer while working in windows.
BTW, I know a case where WSL is nothing short of brilliant: online game development. A lot of times, the backend is running linux only, while the client is windows only. WSL is the only decent solution here.
I think that’s perhaps a selection bias. Tons of people work on windows desktop apps, Microsoft stacks (sharepoint/office/power..) but what they do isn’t on GitHub, it doesn’t end up on Twitter or HN. Perhaps not even on the StackOverflow dev survey. We just go to work and write software. I also think that it’s a matter of where you are at. If you ask anyone in Silicon Valley what tech they use, few will say Windows, C++, C# or COBOL. But if you ask in traditional industry (manufacturing, chemical, …) and perhaps in Germany rather than the US, you’ll get a completely different answer.
Well I'm from germany, working for a quite large software shop. Windows is definitely going away. Ten years ago Windows Apps had around 50% of devs allocated, now it's down to at most 15%, dying quite fast. Even the windows devs use mostly WSL tools where they exist.
SaaS is the future, and Windows didn't find its place in that space.
I am also located in Germany, and there are plenty of Windows jobs, it no accident that Germany is still one of the markets that is relevant for products like Delphi, with an annual conference.
Many SaaS products like Sitecore power several Mittelstand companies.
Well, Germany is not exactly a powerhouse of IT innovation these days.
I took a few week-long professional courses related to low-level stuff in Munich and elsewhere in Germany, and it felt as is most other students were either working in finance or car making industries.
Both industries are conservative (for a good reason), and generally lag behind the mainstream by at least 10 years. I am not even saying Silicon Valley maintream, no. It's more like moving from pure embedded to Linux, or replacing a 30-40 year old OS with Linux. A lot of Windows machines.
To explain why this feelt so strange to me. In London, UK outside of City any decent IT company looks like the following: developers use either Mac or Linux machines (4 to 1); non-technical or semi-technical audience (HR, DevRels, marketing, design, etc) uses Macs; finance and legal teams mostly use Windows.
Technically speaking, all backends, all of compute, everything is based on Linux. On-prem, cloud, whatever - always Linux.
So for somebody wanting to stick with Windows WSL becomes a necessity.
That’s the thing though: software development isn’t IT innovation. Most software is probably written at companies that aren’t primarily software companies. It’s done in traditional firms in manufacturing, banks, mining, whatever.
Even if Germany continues to be less prominent in the software industry, more software lines of code will be written in Germany every year.
The thing about windows is that even when 100% of developers left it, most non-devs will still use it. So if you make software for them, you are going to need it. I make a cad program. We can’t really leave Windows and even doing multi platform or web based make financial sense.
Well, I know of several companies in Wales doing Windows development.
There are still plenty of 'older' or more specialised software that targets windows desktop, but the vast majority of 'windows' developers are now working within .NET core and targeting web technologies as the 'front end' of choice.
So you could argue either way, but there is a clear noticeable shift away from Windows desktop apps across a lot of industries.
The ImageMagick development team probably don't count themselves as Windows developers. At least not all of them.
Skip the ‘WS’ part & just use the ‘L’
The Year of Desktop Linux is around the corner!
Yes.
They’re called Codespaces.
Microsoft owns GitHub, Codespaces, & Windows. Throw them all out.
Running on Azure on top of Windows, aka Hyper-V and Azure Host OS.
With some GNU too!
WSL is only tenable if you only use your computer for development.
Trying to use a windows computer for gaming or media production with WSL installed is problematic. For example… opening file explorer causes WSL to start and file explorer is frozen until it launches. And WSL seems to constantly be running eating up 8gb of RAM.
Unless you need a GPU, codespaces are way more convenient than WSL.
Let's not. Let's normalize using proper operating systems for software development and let these gate keepers to hardware that you own find out what unemployment is like.