I'm with you - after years of messing with dualboot Linux, including (foolishly) running multiday Gentoo builds, WSL + Windows now gives me everything I want from Linux with zero friction.
In fact, I'm a little annoyed that I can't get a comparably smooth experience on my MacBook without spinning up a full QEMU VM. I know it's a bit hypocritical since, like most people, I run WSL2 (which is container/VM-based), not WSL1 (the original magic syscall translation vision).
Does anyone know why there's no lightweight solution on macOS - something like LXC plus a filesystem gadget - that would let me run stuff like "apt-get install chromium"?
Try https://tart.run/
>Native performance Tart is using Apple’s native Virtualization.Framework that was developed along with architecting the first M1 chip. This seamless integration between hardware and software ensures smooth performance without any drawbacks.
> WSL1 (the original magic syscall translation vision).
Actually, the OG "magic syscall translation" is Cygwin[0], which dates back to 1995[1].
[0] https://cygwin.com
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin
Edit: Fixed prose.
Absolutely! I remember playing and struggling with Cygwin back in the day… I meant original in the sense of the original vision for WSL.
Perhaps with the Mac Hypervisor someone is working on it.
But Qemu (via UTM) starts up pretty quickly for me. No slower than WSL2 under Windows. My only issue is that it seems to drain power even when idle.
Is this close enough? https://github.com/lima-vm/lima