Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a simple way to run Linux without running it natively, managing virtualization or dual booting. It opens a whole world of development tools and is an onboarding ramp to vibrant Linux ecosystem for developers familiar with Windows. Not only is installation and setup easy but integration with Windows is seamless enabling networking, file transfer and many applications. Visual Studio Code can run in Windows and read/write files to Linux without any special configuration and includes running extensions and tooling like Github Copilot CLI and Claude Code. Although once you start using Zsh, the CLI versions of Copilot and Claude become very compelling!

Zsh

Zsh adds a few creature comforts over the typical built-in bash shell. Here are some of my preferred features

• Improved tab completion
• Rich plugin ecosystem (I like git, terraform, nvm, npm)
• Shared command history across sessions
• Theming support

⚠️ What is a shell?

Scott Hanselman has a great explainer on the differences between Terminal/Console and shells.

Oh-my-zsh

Tool to quick-start with zsh and easily manage configuration: https://ohmyz.sh/

Getting Started Guide

Start with Oh-my-zsh. Install zsh before installing oh-my-zsh.

Store dot files in a public repository

I put my dotfiles and personal getting started guide in a public git repository so I can have consistent configuration wherever I need a development environment: https://github.com/pvanhoven/dotfiles