Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well. I've been dual booting my laptop with Windows 11 and Linux Mint for about a year now. My intention was to use Mint primarily for coding and programming tasks while reserving Windows for gaming and video editing. However, I've recently found myself coding more on Windows than Linux. I'm considering switching to running Linux Mint in a Virtual Machine solely for coding. I think this might streamline my workflow since I won't have to reboot just to code. Has anyone here tried this approach? Is it worth it?
5 Answers
Having a separate dev environment is a smart move! A VM is perfectly valid, but many find WSL lighter and more integrated. Plus, tools like VS-Code servers make accessing your environment from anywhere super easy.
You could also keep your dual boot and create a VM that points to the Linux disk volume. This way, you can use both native Linux and Linux in Windows at the same time. It's a bit advanced but doable!
I used to dual boot too, but it made accessing my dev work a hassle. Switching to WSL2 made it easier for me to do my coding right in Windows without booting into Linux all the time.
It can be useful if it works for you! Personally, I stopped using VMs on Windows and switched to WSL2. It's been enough for my development needs without the overhead of managing a VM.
I run a headless VM and access it via SSH without any GUI lag, which is nice. But if your needs are simpler, WSL2 might be all you need. Just consider what will work best for your projects.
Thanks, that’s exactly what I’m looking for! I want a self-contained coding environment without the hassle of restarting my machine. Sounds like WSL could be the way to go.