Is there is any performance loss when using non-official distros in WSL?

Question

Does installing a distro like Arch from a tar file make it slower than using something like Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store or cause any problems?

Answer 1

make it slower ... ?

In general, no - There is no difference.

When you install a distribution like Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store, it really uses the same mechanism anyway. You can see (and even use) the tarball from a Store-installed distribution by starting an Administrative PowerShell (or CMD) shell and running:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\' | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'install.tar.gz' }

When you install, for instance, Debian from the Microsoft Store, it creates an application execution alias (a "fake .exe for Store/UWP/Modern apps) called Debian.exe. Running it has several functions:

• If it detects that there's no debian distribution, it will (essentially) use WSL functionality to import the tarball and create the distribution. It then asks for the username/password and (a) creates it in the distribution, (b) Uses WSL functionality to register that user as the "default" for the distribution when it is launched.

• If the distribution is installed already, it launches it.

There are a few other historical functions for the <distribution>.exe, but they have mostly been replaced by the wsl.exe command itself.

or cause any problems?

--importing it does have one substantial difference. As mentioned above, the Installers set the username. --importing it, of course, doesn't. So the default username is never set.

After creating your default user (preferably as UID 1000), you can set it as the default by following my answer on that topic.

In general, though, I think --importing is better than and less error prone than a distribution created with the Installer. There are several reason for this:

• With --import, you can control the directory (and even drive) for the distribution. Those installed from the Store are in package-specified names under %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\.

• Under Windows 10 at least, uninstalling the Store app will also remove the distribution itself. This can also be an issue on any type of Windows reset that impacts Store-installed apps. An --imported distribution is safe from this.

Any other differences that would be considered "problems" are typically inherent to the distribution itself, rather than how it was installed.

For instance, under Arch, you will still be facing a Systemd-based distribution. Systemd's insistence on running its process supervision as PID1 conflicts with WSL's init, which is also PID1.

Ubuntu, which is also primarily a Systemd-based distribution, at least provides many services as legacy SysVInit scripts, so that you can start them under WSL with service <service_name> start. IIRC, Arch doesn't have this fallback.

But nor does Debian when installed from the Store, which is why I say this is a "distribution limitation" rather than that of the "installation method."

Personal recommendation -- For this reason, under WSL, you may want to consider Artix Linux. It's an Arch-based distribution that lets you choose an alternative process supervisor (such as Dinit or OpenRC). The great thing is that the vast majority of packages have service scripts for every one of the supported process supervisors. For instance, if you install MariaDB, you have several options:

• mariadb-openrc
• mariadb-dinit
• mariadb-runit
• mariadb-s6

Installing the one for your particular supervisor will install the appropriate scripts plus the base mariadb package.

At your convenience, I also recommended reading some of my other answers related to this question:

• An Ask Ubuntu question about Systemd and WSL
• Some more information and a different take on the same in a Super User answer.
• All the WSL Differences and Limitations (I could think of) in another Ask Ubuntu answer.