I have to work with Win11 for work and just noticed the lil Tux man in Microsofts Explorer. Likely to connect to WSL.

Apparently now Microsoft wants people to keep using Windows in a really interesting way. By simply integrating it within their own OS!

This way, people don’t have to make the super hard and complicated switch to linux, but they get to be lazy, use the preinstalled container and say “See, I use Linux too!”.

While this is generally a good thing for people wanting to do things with the OS, it is also a clear sign that they want to make it feel “unneccessary” to switch to Linux, because you already have it!

WSL alone was already a smart move, but this goes one step further. This is a clever push on their side, increasing the barrier to switch even more, since now there is less of a reason to. They are making it too comfortable too stay within Microsofts walls.

On a different note: Should the general GNU/Linux community do the same? Should we integrate easier access to running Winblows apps on GNU/Linux?
Currently I still find it too much of a hastle to correctly run Winblows applications, almost always relying on Lutris, Steams proton or Bottles to do the work for me.

I think it would be a game changer to have a double click of an EXE file result in immediate automatic wine configuration for easy and direct use of the software, even if it takes a big to setup.

I might just be some fedora using pleb, but I think having quick and easy access to wine would make many people feel much more comfortable with the switch.

Having a similar system to how Winblows does it, with one container for all your .exe programs would likely be a good start (instead of creating a new C drive and whatever for every program, which seems to be what Lutris and Bottles does).

EDIT: Uploaded correct image

  • Smorty [she/her]OP
    4·
    1 day ago

    naw, have your tried Envision? Just a few months ago I thought the same as you, but ever since I tried Envision, I have not opened SteamVR at all.

    Envision (a foss VR client) works GREAT for VR on linux. In fact, I also have an index, so I can tell you that yes, it works very well.

    I stumbled across this project via the lvra website, which is an amazing forum site about using your VR devices on GNU/Linux. I highly, highly recommend going over there and having a look around. It features guides to many common questions and helped me a ton.

    Envision is really just an interface for monado, which does all the complex VR stuff like tracking and screen distortion.

    Envision let’s you import the VR calibration from SteamVR right into Monados format. It uses a super small part of SteamVR in the background to perform the lighthouse tracking. But it’s very lightweight, especially when compared to SteamVR and Oculus’s VR interface.
    Envision takes no time at all to boot up, it also lets you try out the “survive” lighthouse tracker, which is completely FOSS and doesn’t rely on SteamVR at all besides the calibration data (the tracking quality is noticably worse though and the IPD seems to be off, but give it a try!)

    There are two hurtles to get through tho:

    1. Monado doesn’t come with a “room boundary” system. You have to either move very little, or get yourself another solution for displaying your rooms bounds. Maybe try this one, haven’t tested it yyet though.
    2. Monado does not come with its own “steam vr dashboard”. You have to bring your own. I recommend Wlx-Overlay-S as it works great for PC navigation and allows for very fast playspace-moving and resetting. It also allows for stuff like locking certain windows into your environment, so please give it a try, even if you stick with SteamVR. Envision allows for automatic launching of apps on startup, so I launch wlxoverlay.

    If you have any questions about it, there is a Discord server for linux-specific-vr stuff over on the lvra website.

    TLDR: If you didn’t read any of this, just go to this page and have a look at Envision. There are all sorts of cool linux-specific VR things on there. Their discord helped me lots.