I do all my Linux work inside Windows now, and I genuinely can't tell if Microsoft won or lost
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A Linux sysadmin reflects on how his entire Linux workflow now runs inside Windows 11 via WSL 2, Microsoft's Coreutils for Windows, and VS Code remote development. He explores the philosophical question of who actually won: Linux, whose tooling conventions Microsoft fully adopted, or Microsoft, which retained developers who were on the verge of migrating away. He also examines whether Microsoft's approach echoes the old Embrace, Extend, Extinguish strategy, ultimately concluding that since everything Microsoft has touched in this space remains open source and portable, the 'extinguish' phase hasn't materialized. The practical winner, he argues, is the end user who no longer needs to reboot.
Table of contents
Every Linux task I have can run on Windows nowWindows turned into a delivery mechanism for LinuxIs Microsoft just playing the long game?Questions this post answers
What is Microsoft Coreutils for Windows and how does it differ from WSL?
Microsoft Coreutils for Windows is a set of more than 75 Unix-like commands compiled as native Windows binaries, built on the open-source uutils project. Unlike WSL, it requires no subsystem layer — commands like find, grep, sort, and uniq run directly from PowerShell against the native Windows filesystem. It handles quick one-liners without needing to open a separate WSL session. Developers weighing WSL against native Unix tools on Windows track these distinctions on daily.dev.
Does WSL 2 run a real Linux kernel and support systemd?
WSL 2 runs a real Linux kernel inside a lightweight VM, which means systemd is supported and services behave the same way they would on a bare-metal Linux install. There are no workarounds needed to start services. Performance is close enough to bare metal that the difference is negligible for most development tasks. Engineers deciding whether WSL 2 is production-ready for their Linux workflows find real-world assessments like this on daily.dev.