Linux Dev / Productivity Environment on Windows with WSL 2 and Docker
We'll balance using Linux through WSL 2 as well as run native Windows apps to get stuff done related to software development.
Quick Jump:
Every few years it’s fun to make videos like this to demo the tools I use. We’ll focus on workflows I use in my day to day as a software developer who also does image and video editing as well as other things. It focuses on mostly using free and open source tools.
Hopefully it captures the experience of what it’s like to use Windows in general. I personally use Windows 10 Pro but everything works for Windows 11 too.
# Demo Video Showing Everything
Timestamps
- 2:00 – Arch Linux in WSL 2
- 2:43 – Terminal dotfiles
- 3:05 – Tmux / Neovim with WSL 2 and Docker Desktop
- 6:25 – AutoHotKey global hotkeys
- 7:31 – App launcher with Win + S
- 8:10 – Virtual desktops with Dexpot
- 9:12 – File explorer shortcuts
- 10:34 – Flameshot for screenshots
- 11:45 – Ditto for clipboard management
- 12:59 – IrfanView for viewing / converting images
- 15:18 – foobar2000 for mp3s
- 16:19 – VLC for video playback
- 16:32 – GIMP for image editing
- 17:55 – Camtasia for video editing
- 18:47 – LibreOffice for spreadsheets
- 19:37 – Always on top with Dexpot
- 20:59 – Sizer for window positioning and sizing + OBS
- 23:32 – Momentum browser extension
- 23:49 – HexChat for IRC
- 24:23 – Plutus for income / expense tracking
- 25:05 – Mise for command line tool versioning
- 26:16 – FZF for fuzzy finding on the command line
- 26:45 – btop for system monitoring (demos theme switching)
- 27:40 – KeePassXC for password management
- 28:02 – Windows is not all that bad minus the BS
- 29:34 – Docker is clutch and runs really well
Reference links
- https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/the-tools-i-use
- https://github.com/microsoft/terminal
- https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles
- Docker Compose starter apps
- https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
- https://www.autohotkey.com/
- https://dexpot.de/?lang=en
- https://github.com/flameshot-org/flameshot
- https://ditto-cp.sourceforge.io/
- https://www.irfanview.com/
- https://foobar2000.org/
- https://github.com/videolan/vlc
- https://www.gimp.org/
- https://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/
- https://www.libreoffice.org/
- https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf
- http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/
- https://obsproject.com/
- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/momentumdash/
- https://hexchat.github.io/downloads.html
- https://github.com/nickjj/plutus
- https://github.com/jdx/mise
- https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc
What’s your top tools on Windows and WSL 2? Let me know below!