A real Linux kernel and userland running alongside Windows - architecture, integration, and daily use.
Announced at Build 2020 and previewed to Insiders in spring 2021, WSLg let a Linux GUI application's window appear on the Windows desktop like any native app.
WSL distros ran without systemd for years, breaking software expecting PID 1 init. Here is why that gap existed and how it was architecturally closed.
WSL's cross-OS file access translates between Linux and Windows filesystem semantics at the protocol level, and that translation has a real performance cost.
The specific GPU paravirtualization mechanism, built jointly by Microsoft and NVIDIA, that lets WSL2 run CUDA workloads at near-native performance.
WSL2's VM claims memory dynamically as Linux needs it and has historically been slow to release it back, plus what .wslconfig actually lets you control.
WSL2's original NAT networking isolates it from your LAN by default; mirrored mode, added later, takes a fundamentally different approach with real tradeoffs.