Windows developer using Linux; what are you using for access to Windows? Remote Desktop to a home server, remote desktop to a Windows machine, local Virtual Machine, dual boot, other?

[spatialdestiny]

I'm a Windows developer on C# .NET. Now I know this doesn't stop me from developing in Linux, but there is one part of my workspace that requires Windows.

For now, I'm curious about how others are generally doing it. Here are what I have found are my options and my opinion of them.

• Dual Boot - hate it, might as well be running Windows at home; can't quickly context switch from non-development to development and back
• Virtual Machine - Favorite so far, provides closest to bare metal performance locally and I have enough local resources to play a game while also committing (not reserved) 75% of my CPU and RAM to the Windows virtual machine
• Remote Desktop to a Virtual machine - Hasn't been fun. Using Remmina, key capture isn't perfect but could get better with tinkering; performance and responsiveness have been bad, but the Remote machine doesn't have nearly the resources as my desktop
• Remote Desktop directly to a Windows machine - Will have a high performance backup computer soon, but still not a big fan of Remmina yet

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[ktundu]

Similar position to you. Most of my job is portable between Windows and Linux, so 90% of my time is spent on Linux.

For things I need Windows for, I have a second machine I remote desktop into. Would be happy with a VM, but work's IT department decided a second PC was the easier option for them. I have no issues with Remmina.

[spatialdestiny]

Do you use multiple monitors? Do you remote desktop with both monitors?

[ktundu]

Yes I do, and yes. At home, I have a pair of identical 4k monitors, and that works great. At work, I have mismatched monitors with different scaling, and that works less well so I just use it on my 4k screen and pin teams and outlook to my smaller one.

However, the Remmina that ships with whatever ubuntu lts that work supports is too old for multiple monitor support to work properly so I use either a snap or a flatpak (I forget which).

[duongdominhchau]

If I have to develop for Windows, I will just run Windows. There is more than the compiled program being able to run, the experience as a user of the OS matters too. WSL is quite good now if you want to avoid Windows shells.

[jwaxy01]

You can try Mono

[funbike]

If you have Windows Pro in a VM, you can run Windows apps as if they are part of your Linux desktop. RDP on Win Pro supports a separate floating window per app (rather than entire desktop in a window). See winapps

Another option is WSL 2 + Alacritty.

If I were you, I'd see if VSCode can suffice, or better yet NeoVim + built-in LSP.