A true Linux distribution to use under Windows.
"Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a feature of Windows that allows you to run a Linux environment on your Windows machine, without the need for a separate virtual machine or dual booting. WSL is designed to provide a seamless and productive experience for developers who want to use both Windows and Linux at the same time.
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—Microsoft
Disclaimer: I have not used Windows in donkey's years, so much of this has been gleaned from general reading and occasional YouTube videos because I have not had hands-on experience with this puppy. Nonetheless, I have chosen reliable sources, checked my info and this should be technically correct (the best kind of correct!). My opinions remain my own, and of course, your mileage may vary.
There have been technical and computer holy wars since the dawn of time (or at least Vaxen]!) and over the years the Linux vs. Windows battle has gotten quite personal, most especially amongst software developers. The battle lines are drawn up around the availability of tools needed to support software development (not just text editors but command-line tools such as grep, awk, sed and make, all available under Linux. There have been previous attempts to introduce Unix-like tools into Windows (I recall the excellent Cygwin as one example), but they were often clunky and did not have the same level of control and range of tools as a full distribution of Linux would have. Surprisingly enough, this situation was resolved by Micro$soft themselves in 2016, when they released WSL 1 as a part of the Windows Insider Program for Windows 10 and Server. These days, at least under Windows 11, any of the brave few running it can set up a real Linux distro simply by typing wsl --install and restarting the machine.
By default what you get is a recent Ubuntu Linux command-line installation with Bash as the default shell. Both these options can be changed (because MS knows what a picky bunch developers are and doesn't want to see holy wars!). WSL 2 under Win11 runs on a hypervisor, sill uses elements of the Windows kernel, but apparently It All Just Works! Amazing, good job Microsoft, ten points to Slytherin!.
Coming soon to a Windows installation near you is version 2.3.11., according to a recent article from Phoronix. This update will bring a new Linux kernel, many new kernel modules and better error handling (vital for Windows!)
According to Microsoft, using WSL, one can:
Store files in an isolated Linux file system, specific to the installed distribution.
Run command-line tools, such as BASH.
Run common BASH command-line tools such as grep, sed, awk, or other ELF-64 binaries.
Run Bash scripts and GNU/Linux command-line applications including:
Tools: vim, emacs, tmux
Languages: NodeJS, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, C/C++, C# & F#, Rust, Go, etc.
Services: SSHD, MySQL, Apache, lighttpd, MongoDB, PostgreSQL.
Install additional software using your own GNU/Linux distribution package manager.
Invoke Windows applications using a Unix-like command-line shell.
Invoke GNU/Linux applications on Windows.
Run GNU/Linux graphical applications integrated directly to your Windows desktop
Use your device GPU to accelerate Machine Learning workloads running on Linux.
Microsoft provides good documentation on how to install and tweak WSL (for example, using distros other than Ubuntu). The installation process begins at a Windows prompt, using the wsl --install command. This command enables WSL and installs a default Linux distribution (Ubuntu), which can be changed. The guide also covers how to set up user information, manage multiple Linux distributions, and upgrade from WSL 1 to WSL 2. A link to their installation documentation is shown above, Im not going to rehash it all here.
$ xclip -o | wc -w
611