Canonical’s VP of Engineering says Ubuntu’s consumer base inside Home windows Subsystem for Linux is rising considerably sooner than its native desktop consumer base, and he expects WSL to overhaul native Ubuntu installations inside months. Jon Seager made the remark in a deep dive with The Pragmatic Engineer‘s Gergely Orosz, printed April 28, 2026.
Funnily sufficient, Microsoft constructed WSL so builders might use Linux with out leaving Home windows. As a substitute, it turned a rising variety of Home windows PCs into purposeful Linux growth machines, with Home windows serving as little greater than the launcher.
Ubuntu is rising sooner on Home windows 11 by means of WSL
Jon Seager is VP of Engineering at Canonical, the corporate behind Ubuntu. Speaking to Orosz, he talked about one thing that will shock customers nonetheless considering of Home windows and Linux as rivals.
“In a yr, the expansion in our WSL numbers is considerably greater than the expansion in Desktop utilization numbers.”
Seager adopted that with an virtually hard-to-believe assertion:
“I anticipate to see extra Ubuntu WSL customers than ‘native’ Ubuntu customers over the approaching months.”
In fact, Canonical isn’t saying Home windows now has extra Linux customers than Linux itself. Seager is evaluating Ubuntu by means of WSL in opposition to Ubuntu put in natively on a Linux PC, and the WSL aspect is on observe to win.
Seager says Canonical hears always from builders who’ve been given a Home windows machine by their employer, after which uncover that their AI or machine studying work wants Linux.
With WSL, they don’t need to battle their employer’s {hardware} coverage to get it. Microsoft has additionally been upgrading WSL with faster file access, better networking, and easier setup all through 2026.
Jon Seager, VP of Engineering at Canonical, defined how Ubuntu is booming on Home windows, and it’s largely on account of WSL:
“WSL allows Home windows customers to “set up” Ubuntu to be used inside their Home windows
setting. As soon as put in, customers work together with Ubuntu by means of the Terminal app,
and what you’re working actually is Ubuntu. Your property listing is mounted with
Ubuntu and you’ll pull home windows out of this terminal to your desktop; as in precise
home windows as on-screen home windows.
I anticipate to see extra Ubuntu WSL customers than “native” Ubuntu customers over the
coming months. That is very true for anybody doing ML or Al work. We’re
already listening to from a lot of devs who haven’t any alternative however to get a Home windows
machine from their employer, however then discover themselves needing to do Al or ML
work. With WSL, it is a lot easier.”
Why builders are turning Home windows PCs into Linux machines
WSL enables you to run a Linux distribution like Ubuntu straight inside Home windows, with Bash, native Linux binaries, and a Linux kernel, with out dual-booting or utilizing a digital machine.
The enchantment for builders is that even when their employer points a Home windows laptop computer, and even when their growth stack expects Linux, WSL removes the necessity to dual-boot. Containers work the way in which they’re imagined to, and AI or ML tooling will get the Linux setting it was constructed for, all whereas Home windows takes care of the desktop apps and administration instruments their firm requires them to make use of. Home windows dev machines are mainly changing into Linux workstations!
We tested WSL Containers ourselves, which is Microsoft’s manner of constructing and working Linux containers on Home windows 11 with out Docker Desktop. Working uname -a inside one in every of these containers returns an precise Linux kernel string, as a substitute of a translation layer.
A developer doesn’t want to decide on Home windows or Linux anymore. WSL turns Home windows into the host and Linux into the working setting.
Microsoft retains making WSL higher for AI and builders
In 2026, Redmond handled WSL as some of the essential issues for builders utilizing Home windows 11, promising sooner file transfers between Linux and Home windows, stronger networking, and a smoother setup course of, that are all issues that used to push builders towards a Mac.
Then got here WSL Containers. Microsoft first denied that a version called WSL 3 was even real, clarifying that WSL Containers, not a brand new WSL model, was what individuals had noticed at Construct 2026.
It shipped as a public preview with a Docker-like CLI known as wslc, and in reside testing by Microsoft confirmed GPU passthrough labored properly sufficient to run a CUDA-based PyTorch mannequin straight inside a Linux container.
Microsoft has little motive to push builders off Home windows after they can provide customers Linux inside Home windows, preserving the desktop, the enterprise administration instruments, and the ecosystem, whereas builders get the Linux setting for work.
Ubuntu is getting ready for the AI PC, not simply Linux desktops
Seager additionally described a push towards correct GPU, NPU, and DPU help, {hardware} partnerships with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, and CPU structure optimization that makes Ubuntu run sooner on newer chips with out dropping help for older ones.
Ubuntu can also be betting on local-first AI, constructing “inference snaps” that decide the fitting mannequin and quantization routinely, together with early exploration into agentic workflows on the OS degree. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS already ships with native help for each NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm.
Home windows could also be changing into Linux’s largest developer platform
Home windows received builders for many years on functions, enterprise compatibility, and {hardware} help. Linux received builders who wished Linux tooling. WSL quietly eliminated many of the trade-off, and containers make the case even stronger. Our WSL Containers testing confirmed Microsoft treating Linux workloads as a first-class citizen inside Home windows.
Microsoft has gone additional with Azure Linux, the corporate’s free and open-source Linux distribution for Azure workloads. The software program large that after known as Linux “a most cancers” now maintains one. Microsoft spent years making an attempt to make Home windows the platform builders wished, and one in every of its most profitable developer options turned out to be Linux.
It’s not excellent, although
WSL just isn’t a alternative for a local Linux desktop. Native Ubuntu remains to be the higher alternative for anybody who needs full {hardware} management and a Linux-first setting.
Company machine administration is a constraint too. In massive organizations, IT and safety groups select the OS, not the developer, and getting Linux previous compliance tooling is tougher than recreating a lacking app.
WSL isn’t universally liked both, and a few builders nonetheless run into networking points or licensing restrictions the Docker Desktop various was supposed to repair.
The actual fact is, each working programs are working collectively
Below any on-line publish a few bug in Home windows or perhaps a new good function in Home windows, there are feedback from customers who swear switching to Linux from Home windows was the very best choice they made. Nevertheless, the outdated Home windows versus Linux argument doesn’t make sense anymore, because it did a decade in the past.
One PC can run Home windows 11 because the desktop, Ubuntu because the Linux setting, containers by means of WSL, GPU workloads in that setting, and nonetheless deploy code on to Linux servers when it’s carried out.
Naturally, Canonical is getting the win right here as a result of Ubuntu reaches builders who won’t in any other case set up it natively.
And in case you haven’t guessed it already, Microsoft additionally advantages right here as a result of these builders (or their employers) maintain shopping for and utilizing Home windows PCs.
Regardless of despising the disposition, builders nonetheless get the setting their work calls for.
If you happen to’re a developer, which platform do you favor? Home windows, Linux, or WSL? Inform us within the feedback.
