this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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What GNU/Linux applications do you want to use? If you want desktop free software such as Firefox, LibreOffice, LMMS, Inkscape or Kdenlive, you can install many of them directly on Windows, it will run faster than a virtual machine. If you want to learn the command line, such as bash, curl, vim, imagemagick and ffmpeg, or program in C or C++ using the GNU toolchain, try WSL, from which you can access your Windows files under /mnt/c, /mnt/d etc. A standalone virtual machine makes sense when you want to play with a desktop environment such as KDE or GNOME, or a tiny compositor such as Sway, or a rare desktop app that isn't cross-platform. But it's more pleasant to run them on hardware directly, having installed Debian or Fedora on a USB SSD.
Terminals and command lines like fish and zsh run well on windows ? Vim and ffmpeg ? They work fine on windows ?
WSL is the name of the tool, it installs an Ubuntu virtual machine that integrates with Windows in a way that you don't have to care about disk sizes, shared folders or remote access. It gives you an Ubuntu bash window after a few minutes of automatic downloading. Under WSL, I do run both vim and ffmpeg OK. You can install most packages you want like on a full Ubuntu installation.
Thanks for sharing. The only difference is that instead of Ubuntu, l'd love to go for MX Linux, as I want to get a hang of it.
While I don't know whether MX Linux supports WSL (just a few distributions do), I know that MX is based on Debian, and you can install Debian under WSL with
wsl --install -d Debian. Their console experience is very similar.So you work on Ubuntu ? I'm getting stuck in this bash window itself.....
You can install a terminal multiplexer:
sudo apt-get install byobu- and launch it:byobu, then follow the instructions on how to use multiple CLI apps at the same time. For example, install zsh, vim, ffmpeg and other console programs you wanted, and launch them in multiple byobu tabs. If you want to install a desktop application, you can do that with apt-get as well, and WSL will create a shortcut in your Windows start menu. Basically, you work on your Windows desktop and use GNU/Linux apps at the same time.Learnt a lot today. Exploring gradually what linux is.