WSL1 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 1)
Shares rank 17 of 27 compatibility layers by recommenders
People recommend WSL1 for Linux tasks where it beats WSL2 and handles most syscalls without hacks. Critics say it was slow on I/O and Microsoft dropped it.
People recommend WSL1 for Linux tasks where it beats WSL2 and handles most syscalls without hacks. Critics say it was slow on I/O and Microsoft dropped it.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than WSL2 for some tasks
“WSL1 can do that, WSL2 can be kicked into working somewhat”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Isn't WSL2 just a VM?” “WSL1 is generally better for these usecases.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Coreutils for Windows” Supports most Linux syscalls
“it could cleanly support most of the Linux syscalls without needing any hacks”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft to replace all C/C++ code with Rust” “WSL1 proves that it mostly can”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Coreutils for Windows”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow, unusable for I/O-heavy work
“adding “picoprocesses” to the kernel so that WSL1 would perform acceptably and still wasn’t enough”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS” “It was soooo slow though. Practically unusable for anything i/o heavy.”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “macOS Container Machines” Dropped by Microsoft
“wsl1 almost replaced it, but obviously they scrapped it”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “macOS Container Machines”
Other compatibility layers people recommend
The four most recommended other compatibility layers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proton by Valve | 451 | 189 | 70% | 13 | 2 yrs31 owners | Approved |
| Wine | 329 | 88 | 79% | 13 | 10 yrs11 owners | Approved |
| Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) | 159 | 101 | 61% | 12 | 3 yrs9 owners | — |
| WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) | 115 | 55 | 68% | 12 | — | Approved |
| WSL1 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 1)This page | 7 | 3 | 70% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“wsl1 almost replaced it, but obviously they scrapped it”
“It was soooo slow though. Practically unusable for anything i/o heavy.”
“it can't be denied it was full of random bugs”
“WSL1 is generally better for these usecases.”
“WSL1 proves that it mostly can”
“WSL1 was pretty neat, at least, and is still available”
“Like WSL1 worked better than Linuxulator at least as of last Jan when I tried.”
“adding “picoprocesses” to the kernel so that WSL1 would perform acceptably and still wasn’t enough”
“it could cleanly support most of the Linux syscalls without needing any hacks”
“WSL1 can do that, WSL2 can be kicked into working somewhat”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.