Running Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 20.04 Simultaneously Under WSL 2
I recently updated my Windows taskbar to include a BASH Shell, Jupyter and Web browser, and it's become part of my daily routine. I had to decide whether to keep one copy of Linux running under WSL, so I chose to run both 18.04 and 20.04 side-by-side. Follow me as I take you through my obsessive compulsive journey of updating my taskbar and deciding which Linux OS to run.
My Obsessive Compulsive Journey of Running Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 Simultaneously Under WSL 2
By Michael Levin
Saturday, September 17, 2022
This latest round of wsl2lxd updates, it has stabilized. My Windows taskbar can once again look like this: a BASH Shell, Jupyter and Web browser.
This is not quite religion to me now, but it is in the realm of obsessive compulsive. More accurately, I’m disciplining myself for it to be compulsive so that my muscle memory works well for me. This journal is always on screen one. This got disrupted momentarily as I worked out whether I was going to try to keep only one copy of Linux running under WSL, the Ubuntu 18.04 one that I need for running LXD and Jupyter, or the Ubuntu 20.04 that I used to run before this project and could easily bring back and run side-by-side with 18.04 because WSL easily works that way.
Remember, each ubuntuxx04.exe is a “slot” allowing one of those versions. So running 18.04 and 20.04 side by side under WSL is not a problem. So that’s what I decided to do, and now I keep this journal open on virtual desktop one all the time with no fear of my WSL / LXD install script development interfering. There was nothing worse than coming back here and feeding this shell locked up, requiring a Ctrl+Shift+W to close and the following cleanup work of .journal.md.swp file that’s left behind. I was worried about there being a performance issue, but there is none.