Very strange problems installing on win10

General Usage
11

WSL: A possible Windows “solution”/workaround

I recently tried installing Julia-for-Linux-on-Windows (using the Windows Subsystem for Linux).

It worked! (Windows 11 / WSL:Debian / Julia 1.9.0 )
— and quite well, I must add: WSL integration is seamless within Windows (though the WSL installation itself is not)

As an added benefit: WSL installations create a “.vhdx” virtual disk with an EXT4 partition (at least mine did at the time of writing).

  • I would bet file operations have a real likelihood of being faster with this Windows/Linux-hybrid solution.
  • If I understand correctly: The Windows filesystem is quite inefficient when accessing many small file (which apparently Julia does all the time).
  • I’ve encountered many slowdowns with systems running Julia on Windows in the past. The slowdown seems particularly bad when code is accessed over network mounted drives.

The downside

  • You probably need admin rights to enable WSL / install your preferred Linux distribution.
  • Some users might not be comfortable running Linux over WSL as the package installation process appears mostly limited to the command line (ex: manually un-tar-ing the julia “package” from Download Julia)

Having said that: I have had zero issues running GUI-based packages once installed.

  • ex: gvim confirmed to run perfectly after installation with apt-get.

The challenge

Could someone potentially come up with an simple installation script that will simplify the WSL+Julia installation experience?

  • Maybe through some sleek “windows store” app installation?

If that happens: I’m sure other users will want to try the Linux version of Julia (not just those struggling with sensitive malware protection software).

1 Like