Thx

Hello. Long time Linux user. Until recently, at work I had to use Windows. I'd typically run either VMWare Workstation or VirtualBox and map some C:\shared drive into my guests and spend 95% of my time full-screened in my Linux guest.

After a Win10 -> Win11 "upgrade", using a graphical VM become unusable, slow, laggy.

At that point I started using WSL and quite like how easy it is to create new instances, how well it integrates with the Windows terminal, VSCode, Windows explorer, etc.

I like being able to create new instances so I can play around with various tools and not wreck my host system.

Now that running Linux native on my laptop is an option for me I'm curious how well I can replicate this experience. I'd like to keep my host system extremely clean.

Terminal

I can replicate the WSL terminal experience by creating profiles with custom commands like

• `lxc exec my-container -- su --login my-userid`
• `ssh -X my-container`

Gui Slowness

Even though I'm an advanced Git user, I have habits that involve using `gitk` and `git gui`. When I run gitk with X11 forwarding it's incredibly slow to start up.

Somehow launching the same gitk through VSCode while connected over SSH to the same LXD container is instant, not slow at all.

QUESTION: How is VSCode is doing this and can I replicate it over a normal ssh session in my gnome-terminal.

This is a sticking point for me. I need to be able to launch simple GUIs like `tkdiff`, `gitk` and `git gui`. In fact, I have an keyboard with a custom key mapped to `gitk --all &`.

Launching Code

I love how on WSL2 I can be in a Linux directory and run `code .` and it'll launch code.exe from Windows and it'll automagically connect to my WSL session and open the folder.

I understand this behavior is likely unobtainable now without cooperation between VSCode and LXD.

For now I can just launch code natively on the host, connect to a remote ssh (to my container) session and open a folder.

Perhaps some Rube Goldberg combination of scripts could automate something similar? Maybe from the LXD container ssh back into the host and somehow launch VSCode in such a way that it opens a remote connection and opens the proper folder.

Filesystem Sharing

I guess `sshfs` can solve some things here?

General Thoughts / Questions

Is anyone else doing actual development inside of LXD containers? What tricks are you using to be able to use native tools against your "remote (yet local)" containers?

I feel bad because I absolutely hate Windows, but currently it seems like a superior platform to do Linux development on. They just have better interoperability between the Windows host and Linux guests than a Linux system does.

You automatically in your WSL Linux guests get `/mnt/c/` to acces your C: drive.

You automatically get in Windows a Linux section in your File Explorer to browse all your Linux instances.

I accidentally stumbled on perhaps the perfect project for anyone wanting to learn LXD with something a bit more complex.

In this case, it involves using LXD for managing a container and a virtual machine, as well as some customized networking in between.

Sharing this step by step guide here in case it helps others. Cheers!

Full guide here: LTSP on LXD: A Fun Dev Trip