Does Windows Subsystem for Linux run on Linux?

Verdict: Not directly

Not directly, and that is the point. WSL exists to run Linux inside Windows. Once you are on Linux you have the real thing, with no layer in between.

Windows Subsystem for Linux by Microsoft · Coding · No way to run it

Microsoft describe WSL as a feature of Windows that runs a Linux environment on your Windows machine without a separate virtual machine or dual boot. Everything it gives you is what a Linux computer already is: a Linux file system, a shell, the standard command line tools, your distribution's own software installer, and Linux apps on your desktop.

So there is nothing to replace. Whatever you installed inside WSL, you install on Linux directly, from your system's app store or software installer. It will run faster, because it is not inside a small virtual machine sharing your Windows PC's resources.

A couple of habits change. Files no longer sit in two places with a bridge between them, which removes the slow-folder problem WSL users know about. And you can no longer call Windows programs from your Linux shell, because there is no Windows underneath.

If you want more than one version of Linux, or you still need a Windows program now and then, a virtual machine on your Linux desktop fills that gap the way WSL did in reverse.

What to use instead of Windows Subsystem for Linux

VirtualBox

Different way of workingFree

Runs another whole system in a window, including Windows, which is the closest thing to WSL in reverse. Heavier than WSL was.

Your files: Each virtual machine keeps its own drive. Sharing folders with it is a setting you turn on.

Bottles

Different way of workingFree

For running a single Windows program on Linux rather than a whole system. Lighter than a virtual machine, and not every program works.

Your files: Windows programs read files from your normal folders once you point them there.

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