A real Linux kernel and userland running alongside Windows — architecture, integration, and daily use.
Running several separate Linux distros side by side under WSL, installing new ones, switching between them, and setting a specific one as your default.
Switching between WSL2's default NAT networking and mirrored networking mode, and verifying which one actually solves your specific reachability problem.
Installing and running a graphical Linux application directly on the Windows desktop through WSLg, with no separate X server setup or remote desktop session.
Edit and debug code inside a WSL distro from Windows VS Code without copying files across operating systems or sacrificing Linux filesystem performance.
Setting memory, CPU, swap, and networking behavior for every WSL2 distro on your machine from the one central, global .wslconfig file.
The specific interop layer that lets a WSL shell launch Windows executables and Windows shells launch Linux commands, translating paths and streams both ways.
WSL2 runs Microsoft's own open-source Linux kernel fork, patched for its virtualized environment and updated independently of any distro's kernel package.
Microsoft shelved its Android-app bridge for Windows 10 Mobile in February 2016, consolidating on a single iOS-focused bridge just weeks before WSL's own reveal.
Eighteen months after its reveal, WSL gained full Microsoft support, multi-distro Store installs, and Windows Server compatibility, ending its beta status.
Microsoft's Build 2020 GPU compute announcement, followed by NVIDIA's CUDA preview, let machine learning frameworks use a physical GPU from inside WSL2.