this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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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.

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[–] dr_robot@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

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.