Re: libreplanet-discuss Digest, Vol 117, Issue 6

[LM]

   On Fri, Jan 17, 2020 lily wrote wrote:

     Crista, I will put together some basic instructions for turning on
     and
     using WSL (suitable for you or the Desktop people if we need to go
     that route), and then we can see if that gets you where you need to
     be.

   Sorry to hear they stuck you with WSL and hope you'll continue to work
   to get a better alternative.
   I use Windows all the time at work and I use mainly FLOSS software with
   it.  Was very thrilled to hear about Microsoft's initiative to support
   porting FLOSS programs by providing SFU (predecessor to WSL) several
   years ago.  Bought a high end Windows laptop just to run it.  Never got
   it running on the laptop.  It only worked on certain hardware.  The
   installer also didn't work with certain systems even if the hardware
   was acceptable.  Even worse, Microsoft promised they'd continue to
   support developers if they used this route to develop programs and they
   promptly dropped support and removed all the forums related to it.
   After that experience, I do not feel confident using Microsoft's
   official options to run Linux/POSIX software or emulated software.
   As a programmer, I prefer to run programs compiled natively for Windows
   (typically programs that are cross-platform) when I'm using a Windows
   platform.  I've converted tons of software to run on Windows.  If I
   can't build it from source myself, I don't feel confident that the
   software can be debugged if there's a problem.  Cygwin was a far better
   option than SFU because it at least continues to be supported. My
   personal preference is to natively build cross-platform FLOSS software
   for the machine I'm on whenever possible rather than try to run
   emulators or use alternative kernels.
   A few other pieces of information, I remember reading on one of the LFS
   mailing lists that someone tried to build Linux From Scratch using
   WSL.  It took longer than building on a regular Linux machine.  That
   means it's very possible that using WSL will be slower than using Linux
   on the same hardware.  Dual-booting, if you can get your people to
   agree with it, might provide a much better experience.  There's also
   colinux as a FLOSS alternative to WSL and Reactos as an alternative to
   Windows.
   If you have another conversation with your team, the following points
   may be useful to you.
   WSL as the successor to SFU may be just as short-lived on support as
   SFU was.
   WSL requires very specific hardware to work and narrows down computer
   selection.
   WSL may not provide performance as good as the same machine running
   Linux.
   Linux systems also have the added benefits of good security and they
   can typically be kept running longer than Windows systems before
   requiring reboots due to things like memory management issues.
   You may want to remind them again about the ethical reasons for using a
   FLOSS operating system.  There are issues like vendor lock-in.  If
   things are too proprietary, an average programmer not working for a
   proprietary corporation, may not be able to stay effective in the
   industry.  If you can't access the code, you can't tell what's it's
   doing.
   Where I work, the major factor on deciding what's used is based on
   who's going to be responsible for supporting it.  Unfortunately, I
   can't just tell them I'll support it myself.  They aren't comfortable
   with that.  However, if I mention there's a third party that support
   can be out-sourced to that's reasonable in price, that's sometimes good
   enough to help the situation.  For instance, Red Hat provides support
   for their Linux distributions.
   Wish you best of luck with your situation.  Hope you'll keep us
   informed as to how things progress.