Windows Subsystem for Linux
Other wise known as WSL
Why do we need to know about Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2)? WSL2 offers a Linux OS on your windows desktop. You access it with a terminal for command line instructions or using windows explorer \ DOS to access the Linux file system directly
If you are new to Linux WSL2 offers and easy way to access Linux from your Windows desktop so you can learn to work with Linux from a terminal. It doesn’t take long to learn basic commands and from personal experience WSL2 offers the perfect setup for learning and understanding some of the fundamental differences between Windows and Linux.
Here are the steps for installing WSL2 , Install WSL | Microsoft Learn
I use WSL2 primarily on Windows for running Containers (Docker, Podman). Containerized images are quick to deploy in WSL2 and offer me a quick solution to running technologies I want to interact with from VMware images running on my Windows desktop.
I found through trial and error that Broadcom VMWare Workstation works with WSL2. Both VMWare Workstation & WSL2 use Hyper V, Windows virtualisation technology so there is no conflict. I found Oracle VirtualBox to be incompatible with Hyper V.
