Windows naysayers (so, yeah, that's pretty much all of you: no need to raise your hand: just flag this comment, post your outrage in internal YC groups, and the universe will carry on regardless...) will disregard WSL as being confusing, too little too late, EEE, etc.
But, in the real world? The 'Store' version of WSL (or, as you should call it, GNU/LSW, of course...) is actually pretty good.
Previously, I mostly used WSL (néé GNU/LSW) to get a proper `dig` and `curl`, but in recent builds, I can actually run most previously Linux-only software that I'm interested in, as long as it targets Ubuntu x64.
The article makes a good point, were it not for security auditors (SAs).
SA: You leak information and therefore violate policy by disclosing on the login form whether an account exists or not!
Me: Yeah, but figuring out if an account exists is really simple anyway: just a query to a different endpoint...
SA: NEVERMIND, MY LAD: disclosing account existence upon login violates BEST PRACTICES!
Me: OK, yeah, whatever, we'll just change the error message to "something you may or not have entered may or may not be valid information, try again, or not"
There was a notification on my lock screen. It buzzed my phone. It lit up my phone's screen. That's not intrusive, i.e. worse than some additional text on an UI surface that I already interact with?
Avid Windows user here (yes, I know, and you know where the downvote button is: better: just email your YC contacts to ban me once and for all...), and I yet have to see a single truly noticeable ad across any of my Windows installs.
'Promoted' start menu apps on a fresh install: sure. That's like Amazon Search on Ubuntu.
Promotional text on the lock screen? Sure, once in a while. But it takes a LOT of effort to actually click on that.
Desperate 'make this browser your default' prompts from Edge? Sure, every now and then, but since Firefox and Chrome do it as well, that's pretty much a muscle memory 'No' from me.
Now, on my fully paid-for iPhone 13, I got an urgent notification from the Apple Store today. It made my phone buzz and my screen light up, while I was otherwise productively engaged. Apparently, there is a sale on. Apparently, I can't turn these notifications off.
So, me, a lifelong Windows user, got distracted today by an ad. From Apple. Make of that what you will...
0. I install it and it Just Works. I'm just a C# wageslave, so my experience may be atypical, but:
1. I download and run the vscode installer, either on Windows (boo, hiss, I know), MacOS (boo, hiss, I know) or Linux (some recent Ubuntu, boo, hiss, I know, should build my own distro and then complain vscode doesn't work, but, sorry, busy busy...)
2. I clone a repo, open the .csproj or .sln; vscode offers to download and install the (boo, hiss, proprietary, I'm sure, I know, I'm sorry, not sorry) bits required to deal with that
3. I do my work, compile, run, debug, all fine, no issues, can set breakpoints, inspect variables, get InteliCode<tm> (yes, boo, hiss, should learn to appreciate code without helping wheels, sorry, not sorry), check in my branch, create a PR, be done with my day (boo, hiss, yes I know I should be tweaking my dotfiles and such, but, you know, busy, busy)
I'm pretty sure that declaring https://github.com/s-macke/FSHistory/tree/master/data to be MIT-licensed does not actually make it so... (these are disk images of the relevant FS releases, which are still under copyright as well as provided under a proprietary MIT-incompatible license)
TL;DR: A Microsoft contractor basically endorsed piracy, in a weirdly-recursive-enough-to-be-legal way...
Sure, you can have them, as long as you and all your passengers/bystanders have signed an organ donor agreement.