Windows isn't that bad with the right tools.
Recently i found myself with a powerful windows laptop (that I got for gaming) and figured I'd see how WSL has advanced through the years as I have not really used a windows computer for about 5 years. I knew that I wanted to mirror my normal linux setup as close as possible to start so WSL was defiantly the right choice for me. I also primarly use NeoVIM for all developing and figured it would be easier to run it and my plugins in WSL then trying to install on plain windows system.
I found the install of WSL, now called WSL2 very easy and stright forward, default was an Ubuntu LTR system and that was fine for me at the momment.
summery of tools I have installed on windows
- chocolatey https://chocolatey.org (Seriously install this it'll make installs of most other tools so much easier)
- cli app installer for windows
- This now also has a GUI client if you want.
- WSL2 → Ubuntu
- Ubuntu subsystem for windows
- vscode — https://code.visualstudio.com
- good GUI text editor that is good for programming — I use NeoVIM mostly but vscode is good for quickly live sharing of code with coworkers and setting as default for GUI text editor option in windows.
- vivali web browser — https://vivaldi.com
- Great powerful web browser with good security and options.
- has optional sidebar apps that create an almost ecosystem ms powertoys — https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys
- Microsoft utilities that should have been included with windows. I love the powertoys Run that works a bit like Alfred on Mac.
- thunderbird email client — https://www.thunderbird.net/
- great email client for multiple email accounts that also has a good calendar builtin.
- 7-zip — https://www.7-zip.org
- better zip utility ( currently looking at other apps that suport the 7-zip standard)
- ImageGlass — https://imageglass.org a great lightweight image viewer
- fancyWM — https://github.com/FancyWM/fancywm
- Good tiling window manager that works great with windows
- httpie — https://httpie.io
- quick nice way to check APIS
- files (alternate file explorer)
- Gimp — https://www.gimp.org
- awesome open-source image editor
- jellyfin — https://jellyfin.org
- media server
- whalebird (mastodon client) — https://whalebird.social
- slack
- discord
- marktext
- markdown editor WYSIWYG
- croc
- easily transfer files between systems securily though the internet
- wezterm
- Great fast terminal written in Rust
- potplayer (nice video/audio player)
- libreoffice
- open-source full office suite
- sumatraPDF
- PDF reader
- darktable
- open-source image editor
- Hourglass
- simple nice count down timer
- download here
- focalboard (time/project mangagement) — https://www.focalboard.com
- android nearby share
- Dragon cli → drag & drop
- meld — file & directory comparison (GUI) -gitlab
summery of config changes I have made to windows
- Update some ANDOID_HOME for android dev
summery of tools I have installed on WSL2/linux
just my normal set up for any linux environment.