Is Windows 10's Ubuntu subsystem mature enough for a Software developer to switch to it from Ubuntu 16.04?

2

I have a dual boot setup with Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04. I'm usually working on Intellij IDEA and Bash on Ubuntu. I'm however interested in using my Windows. Can I switch now?

Update:

I develop Spring Boot, Nodejs and Android applications. I'm not interested to use the Windows natively.

Alex

Posted 2017-01-03T08:55:32.510

Reputation: 221

2What are your requirements? What are you developing? Anything that involves just the terminal and a few libraries should work fine. Don't expect any special hardware to be usable at all. – GiantTree – 2017-01-03T09:18:13.880

There is a Windows version for Intellij (independant of WSL), and other "classic" bash utilities work very well on it (sed, awk, git, ssh ...). However, servers and X applications are known to have issues and/or necessit workarounds to run. – Aserre – 2017-01-03T10:56:00.630

@GiantTree updated! – Alex – 2017-01-03T11:03:31.763

@Aserre I'm going to use Tomcat. Is that what you mean by "servers"? – Alex – 2017-01-03T11:04:03.603

Regarding tomact, I've not tried it myself on wsl, but I've read several reports of users struggling to set it up. However, you can use the windows release and it should work without issue. – Aserre – 2017-01-03T11:17:51.393

WSL is still a Beta feature – Ramhound – 2017-01-03T12:39:58.453

Answers

5

While the word "mature" in your question is subject to multiple interpretations, I can give you one or two of the angles:

  1. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is still in beta. So, if your definition of "mature" is "officially marked as production-ready", the answer is "No".
  2. WSL does not support running graphical Linux apps. I don't say it is impossible, but you must install your own Linux graphical subsystem on top of it. It might not be your cup of tea. You mentioned InteliJ IDEA, which as I understand, is graphical.
  3. If you are interested in running scripted builds only or build only using the commmand line, your answer would be "yes". WSL is mature enough to perform those tasks.

user477799

Posted 2017-01-03T08:55:32.510

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Asked: 2017-01-03T08:55:32.510

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