Microsoft Build just wrapped up, and even though it was their first fully-virtual conference — a sign of the times — the announcements packed a serious punch for developers. The headline for me? WSL 2 hitting general availability with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. After years of Windows being a second-class citizen for systems programming, we’re in a genuinely different world now.
WSL 2: Linux on Windows, Done Right#
I’ve been running the WSL 2 preview for a few months, and the jump from WSL 1 to WSL 2 is not incremental — it’s architectural. WSL 1 was a compatibility layer that translated Linux syscalls to Windows NT kernel calls. Clever, but limited. WSL 2 runs an actual Linux kernel in a lightweight VM, managed by the Hyper-V hypervisor. The result is full system call compatibility and dramatically better file system performance.
The numbers Microsoft shared are striking: tar extraction is roughly 20x faster, git clone about 2-3x faster, and npm install noticeably snappier. For anyone who has suffered through Node.js dependency resolution on Windows, that alone might be worth the upgrade.
What excites me more than raw performance is the implication for development workflows. With WSL 2, you can run Docker containers natively through the Docker Desktop WSL 2 backend. No more Hyper-V VM sitting alongside your dev environment. Your containers run inside WSL 2, sharing the same Linux kernel. It’s cleaner, faster, and uses less memory. I’ve been testing this with a moderately complex microservices setup and the difference in startup time is noticeable.
The integration with VS Code via the Remote - WSL extension means you can edit files on the Windows side while your build tools, linters, and language servers run inside Linux. It’s the best of both worlds, and it actually works well in practice — something I couldn’t say about earlier attempts at cross-platform development on Windows.
Windows Terminal 1.0: Finally, a Proper Terminal#
Alongside WSL 2, Microsoft shipped Windows Terminal 1.0. It sounds almost absurd to celebrate a terminal emulator in 2020, but anyone who has used the default Windows console knows this was long overdue. GPU-accelerated text rendering, tabs, split panes, full Unicode and emoji support, and a JSON-based configuration file.
The JSON config is a deliberate nod to the developer audience. No registry hacks, no buried settings dialogs — just a config file you can version-control alongside your dotfiles. It’s a small thing, but it signals that the Windows team understands how developers work.
I’ve switched to it as my daily driver for both PowerShell and WSL sessions. The ability to have a Bash tab next to a PowerShell tab next to an Azure Cloud Shell tab is genuinely useful when you’re juggling infrastructure work across environments.
Azure and the Cloud Developer Experience#
Build 2020 also showcased a wave of Azure announcements. Azure Static Web Apps entered preview, offering a streamlined deployment pipeline for JAMstack applications that connects directly to GitHub repos. Azure Communication Services was announced as a competitor to Twilio. And Azure Synapse Analytics got tighter integration with Power BI and Azure Machine Learning.
But the theme that ran through everything was reducing friction for developers. Project Reunion, now in early stages, aims to unify the Win32 and UWP app models — a long-standing pain point for Windows developers. WinUI 3.0 Preview was shown running outside the UWP sandbox for the first time.
Microsoft is also pushing hard on GitHub integration across Azure DevOps, with GitHub Actions for Azure getting expanded capabilities. Given that GitHub Actions is already eating into the CI/CD market, tighter Azure integration could make it the path of least resistance for teams already in the Microsoft ecosystem.
My Take#
I’ve been working with Microsoft technologies on and off for three decades, and the transformation under Nadella continues to impress. Five years ago, telling someone that Microsoft would ship a Linux kernel inside Windows and make their terminal open-source on GitHub would have sounded like a joke. Today, it’s just… Wednesday at Build.
The developer-first strategy is paying off. By making Windows a credible platform for Linux development, Microsoft is addressing the single biggest reason many developers switched to macOS. You no longer need to choose between Windows-native tools and a proper Unix environment.
That said, WSL 2 isn’t perfect. File system performance across the Windows/Linux boundary (accessing /mnt/c from Linux) is still slower than native Linux paths. The networking model can be confusing — WSL 2 gets its own IP address, which trips up some port-forwarding scenarios. And GPU compute support is still in early preview.
But the trajectory is clear. Microsoft is building a platform where you can develop for any target — Linux servers, containers, cloud — without leaving Windows. For enterprise shops where Windows is mandated on developer machines, that’s transformative. For the rest of us, it’s a compelling reason to give Windows another look.
This Build felt less like a product announcement and more like a statement of direction. The developer experience is the product. And right now, Microsoft is executing on that vision better than most.