Conceptual, architectural explainers — how a subsystem actually works underneath.
The coordination mechanism that lets Windows back up files that are open and being written to, without the inconsistency a live copy would risk.
Each WSL2 distro lives inside a dynamically-expanding .vhdx file that grows with use but never shrinks back down automatically after deletions.
WSL distros reduce to a root filesystem tarball plus small registration metadata, which is exactly what makes import, export, and custom distros work.
WSLg runs a real Wayland compositor and audio server inside WSL, remoting individual application windows to Windows over RDP's RAIL protocol.
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.
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.
Bash rewrites typed commands through an ordered sequence of expansions before running them. The exact order explains most quoting and globbing surprises.
Re-running the last command with sudo and fuzzy-searching everything typed today both rely on the same persisted, indexed log the shell writes to disk.
Pressing Tab and getting a sensible list looks simple. Underneath, Bash and Zsh implement a programmable system matching rules specific to each command.