We love Linux...kinda
Microsoft and Nvidia, stuffing it up for everybody
I was quite excited when Microsoft decided to support graphical Linux programs on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, I figured that my laptop was about ready to either be a dual-boot Debian/Windows 10 machine or I was about to ditch Windows altogether. Windows 11 proved somewhat of a reprieve when WSLg was announced, so I duly signed up for the early access Windows program and got WSLg after a short wait. It wasn't worth it.
You have been able to display X based Unix programs on Windows for a long time. An excellent product called MobaXterm was something I have been using for a few years, having a headless Linux machine laying around for most of the time. MobaXterm filled the gap in Windows, which was really missing a good SSH client and an easy to manage X server, both of which MobaXterm cover extremely well (even the free version). You might object and yell "Putty" at me, but I always found Putty to be terrible to deal with. The GUI settings are badly documented and pretty much impenetrable compared to the --help flag of openssh on a Linux machine. I know the Putty guy deserves a huge amount of respect for doing the work to make it available, but I've always hated it.
The dead end that is WSL2
WSL2 has slowly become a real yuck product for me as well. "Oh look, pick your own distribution!" and run it under Windows. I mean, it works (mostly) and the integration with Docker Desktop / Visual Studio / Visual Studio Code is tolerable, but my main machine just runs Debian and it's not only simpler, it's also a shedload more reliable.
Like a lot of people, the user hostility of Windows 11 makes me shake my head. Why is that stupid half menu / half app finder thing so difficult to use? I have to click on it, start typing the name of what I want to run, hope Windows finds it, then click on that. I'm flipping about between the keyboard and the mouse in a pointless exercise that the good old Start menu had fixed back in Windows 95. Yep, you know it's true, the Windows 95 interface was so much better than Windows 11 it's not even a contest. All the stupid flipping tiles, the weather and news thing that is a glorified, broken web page itself taking up half the screen when you accidentally hover over it, gah!
I think I've had to re-install Docker Desktop about 5 times in the last 12 months, because it gets broken from some Windows update and the only fix is to uninstall it and reinstall it. Guess how many times I've had to reinstall docker-ce on Debian? None. WSL2 is an overly clever, overly complex system that even at it's best, delivers a crippled version of your favourite Linux distro to you. Is it better than dual booting? In my estimation no. I get that the effort Microsoft put into making sure Visual Studio Code plays nice with your WSL2 distribution was not trivial, I just think it was a complete waste of time. If you're a corporate developer and you have to have a Windows laptop then it's the only answer, but that answer seems more like a sullen, begrudging "OK, Fine!" from a company that lost the server wars and is now relegated to making games and development tools they don't even like. I'm sorry Microsoft, if Windows Server wasn't such an expensive pain to keep running maybe you wouldn't be in this position. It's an open secret that half your infrastructure doesn't use Windows Server for the same reason none of us use it.
Nvidia, why you gotta do me like that?
Friday had me staring at another Docker Desktop failure due to a Windows update. I decided I was heading back to dual booting but then Nvidia decided to kick me where it hurts.
After struggling with the stupid secure boot setup on the laptop (an Acer Nitro 5) I did eventually get Debian Buster installed on it, only to see that my second screen was displaying two lines of white at the top instead of the extended desktop. I tried the obvious stuff (fiddling the refresh rate) although Google seemed to suggest I needed to ditch the default "Nouveau" driver and install Nvidia's proprietary driver. I'm no purist, I just want something to work.
A little "apt-get install nvidia-drivers" and...the second display now displays exactly nothing, and no amount of fiddling can get it to even recognise there is a monitor plugged in there. It's nothing exotic either, a basic Samsung 4k model. I gave up and slunk back to Windows. I'm guessing it's something to do with the lagging support in Debian and another distro might be better, so it might be time to try Linux Mint or something and see if that gets it to work. Debian is rather opinionated about the free software thing, which is mostly a major advantage, right up until it isn't because some deluded company like Nvidia don't want to play ball.
Nvidia hates Linux?
There are post going back decades about Nvidia graphics not playing nice with Linux, although there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer as to why the company thinks it isn't an important market. The end user install numbers are low, that is completely true.
However, Nvidia just put an enormous effort into changing their video drivers for Windows 11 so that they supported WSLg. It was likely quite a difficult thing to do technically, having to straddle over to the overly complicated virtualisation layer. I'm not sure how acceleration goes as I haven't installed anything in WSL2 that requires it, but it seems very strange to prioritise doing something bonkers difficult for Microsoft while ignoring the entire community of Linux users who simply want to run native.
Everything else I own "just works" almost literally. It might require proprietary firmware or something but on my other machines, a quick google and a single reboot generally gets 100% of everything going. Except Nvidia cards.
In an age where everything is going to be a unix-like and I am making a decision on what video card to buy today that will last me 5 years, it's going to be AMD from now on unless they change their way. I'm not sure how to publically shame Nvidia into doing something about their rubbish Linux drivers, but count me in if you have any ideas.
