{"slug": "ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense", "title": "Ubuntu is growing faster on Windows 11 than on Linux PCs – Canonical (nonsense?)", "summary": "Canonical's VP of Engineering Jon Seager said Ubuntu's user base inside Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is growing significantly faster than its native desktop user base, and he expects WSL to overtake native Ubuntu installations within months. Speaking to The Pragmatic Engineer's Gergely Orosz in an interview published April 28, 2026, Seager attributed the growth to developers who receive Windows machines from employers but need Linux for AI and machine learning work, with WSL providing a simpler solution without fighting hardware policies.", "body_md": "Canonical’s VP of Engineering says Ubuntu’s user base inside Windows Subsystem for Linux is growing significantly faster than its native desktop user base, and he expects WSL to overtake native Ubuntu installations within months. **Jon Seager** made the comment in a deep dive with **The Pragmatic Engineer**‘s Gergely Orosz, published April 28, 2026.\n\nFunnily enough, Microsoft built WSL so developers could use Linux without leaving Windows. Instead, it turned a growing number of Windows PCs into functional Linux development machines, with Windows serving as little more than the launcher.\n\n## Ubuntu is growing faster on Windows 11 through WSL\n\nJon Seager is VP of Engineering at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. [Speaking to Orosz](https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/ubuntu-and-ai), he mentioned something that would surprise users still thinking of Windows and Linux as rivals.\n\n*“In a year, the growth in our WSL numbers is significantly higher than the growth in Desktop usage numbers.”*\n\nSeager followed that with an almost hard-to-believe statement:\n\n*“I expect to see more Ubuntu WSL users than ‘native’ Ubuntu users over the coming months.”*\n\nOf course, Canonical isn’t saying Windows now has more Linux users than Linux itself. Seager is comparing Ubuntu through WSL against Ubuntu installed natively on a Linux PC, and the WSL side is on track to win.\n\nSeager says Canonical hears constantly from developers who have been given a Windows machine by their employer, and then discover that their AI or machine learning work needs Linux.\n\nWith WSL, they don’t have to fight their employer’s hardware policy to get it. Microsoft has also been [upgrading WSL with faster file access, better networking, and easier setup](https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/03/31/microsoft-to-upgrade-windows-subsystem-for-linux-wsl-with-faster-file-access-better-networking-and-easier-setup/) throughout 2026.\n\nJon Seager, VP of Engineering at Canonical, explained how Ubuntu is booming on Windows, and it’s mostly due to WSL:\n\n*“WSL enables Windows users to “install” Ubuntu for use within their Windows*\n\n*environment. Once installed, users interact with Ubuntu through the Terminal app,*\n\n*and what you’re running literally is Ubuntu. Your home directory is mounted with*\n\n*Ubuntu and you can pull windows out of this terminal to your desktop; as in actual*\n\n*windows as on-screen windows.*\n\n*I expect to see more Ubuntu WSL users than “native” Ubuntu users over the*\n\n*coming months. This is especially true for anyone doing ML or Al work. We’re*\n\n*already hearing from lots of devs who have no choice but to get a Windows*\n\n*machine from their employer, but then find themselves needing to do Al or ML*\n\n*work. With WSL, this is a lot simpler.”*\n\n## Why developers are turning Windows PCs into Linux machines\n\nWSL lets you run a Linux distribution like Ubuntu directly inside Windows, with Bash, native Linux binaries, and a Linux kernel, without dual-booting or using a virtual machine.\n\nThe appeal for developers is that even if their employer issues a Windows laptop, and even when their development stack expects Linux, WSL removes the need to dual-boot. Containers work the way they’re supposed to, and AI or ML tooling gets the Linux environment it was built for, all while Windows takes care of the desktop apps and management tools their company requires them to use. Windows dev machines are basically becoming Linux workstations!\n\n[We tested WSL Containers ourselves](https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/07/02/hands-on-with-linux-container-using-wsl-container-on-windows-11-without-docker-desktop/), which is Microsoft’s way of building and running Linux containers on Windows 11 without Docker Desktop. Running uname -a inside one of these containers returns an actual Linux kernel string, instead of a translation layer.\n\nA developer doesn’t need to choose Windows or Linux anymore. WSL turns Windows into the host and Linux into the working environment.\n\n## Microsoft keeps making WSL better for AI and developers\n\nIn 2026, Redmond treated WSL as one of the most important things for developers using Windows 11, promising faster file transfers between Linux and Windows, stronger networking, and a smoother setup process, which are all things that used to push developers toward a Mac.\n\nThen came WSL Containers. [Microsoft first denied that a version called WSL 3 was even real](https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/06/28/microsoft-denies-wsl-3-exists-reveals-windows-11s-wsl-containers-ship-next-week/), clarifying that WSL Containers, not a new WSL version, was what people had spotted at Build 2026.\n\nIt shipped as a public preview with a Docker-like CLI called wslc, and in live testing by Microsoft showed GPU passthrough worked well enough to run a CUDA-based PyTorch model directly inside a Linux container.\n\nMicrosoft has little reason to push developers off Windows when they can give users Linux inside Windows, keeping the desktop, the enterprise management tools, and the ecosystem, while developers get the Linux environment for work.\n\n## Ubuntu is preparing for the AI PC, not just Linux desktops\n\nSeager also described a push toward proper GPU, NPU, and DPU support, hardware partnerships with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, and CPU architecture optimization that makes Ubuntu run faster on newer chips without dropping support for older ones.\n\nUbuntu is also betting on local-first AI, building “inference snaps” that pick the right model and quantization automatically, along with early exploration into agentic workflows at the OS level. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS already ships with native support for both NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm.\n\n## Windows may be becoming Linux’s biggest developer platform\n\nWindows won developers for decades on applications, enterprise compatibility, and hardware support. Linux won developers who wanted Linux tooling. WSL quietly removed most of the trade-off, and containers make the case even stronger. Our WSL Containers testing showed Microsoft treating Linux workloads as a first-class citizen inside Windows.\n\nMicrosoft has gone further with [Azure Linux](https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/06/29/microsoft-called-linux-a-cancer-now-ships-its-own-free-distro-thats-nothing-like-ubuntu-or-fedora/), the company’s free and open-source Linux distribution for Azure workloads. The software giant that once called Linux “a cancer” now maintains one. Microsoft spent years trying to make Windows the platform developers wanted, and one of its most successful developer features turned out to be Linux.\n\n## It’s not perfect, though\n\nWSL is not a replacement for a native Linux desktop. Native Ubuntu is still the better choice for anyone who wants full hardware control and a Linux-first environment.\n\nCorporate device management is a constraint too. In large organizations, IT and security teams choose the OS, not the developer, and getting Linux past compliance tooling is harder than recreating a missing app.\n\nWSL isn’t universally loved either, and some developers still run into networking issues or licensing restrictions the Docker Desktop alternative was supposed to fix.\n\n## The fact is, both operating systems are working together\n\nUnder any online post about a bug in Windows or even a new good feature in Windows, there are comments from users who swear switching to Linux from Windows was the best decision they made. However, the old Windows versus Linux argument doesn’t make sense anymore, as it did a decade ago.\n\nOne PC can run Windows 11 as the desktop, Ubuntu as the Linux environment, containers through WSL, GPU workloads in that environment, and still deploy code directly to Linux servers when it’s done.\n\nNaturally, Canonical is getting the win here because Ubuntu reaches developers who might not otherwise install it natively.\n\nAnd if you haven’t guessed it already, Microsoft also benefits here because those developers (or their employers) keep buying and using Windows PCs.\n\nDespite despising the disposition, developers still get the environment their work demands.\n\nIf you’re a developer, which platform do you prefer? Windows, Linux, or WSL? Tell us in the comments.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense", "canonical_source": "https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/16/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-native-linux-pcs-says-canonical/", "published_at": "2026-08-16 19:43:54+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-16 20:11:11.112251+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "machine-learning", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Canonical", "Jon Seager", "Ubuntu", "Windows Subsystem for Linux", "Microsoft", "The Pragmatic Engineer", "Gergely Orosz"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ubuntu-is-growing-faster-on-windows-11-than-on-linux-pcs-canonical-nonsense.jsonld"}}