You can do LSW. That is, just use a Windows VM for those software. You make the same tradeoffs except less often.

I'd be sacrificing a lot more resources to run a full Windows VM than just using Windows natively.

And nevermind doing GPU accelerated tasks unless I want to faff around doing KVM stuff.

Easier to just use Windows directly and WSL2 when I need it.

You're sacrifing the exact same amount when using WSL2. The difference is that Windows is only useful for Photoshop and 3% of video games, while as a developer you're using Linux all day.

You're not sacrificing any resources, in both cases you're running a full Linux and a full Windows.

As far as GPU acceleration it's just as much of a pain inside of WSL2 than in a regular VM.

Fwiw I only use Windows for Genshin Impact now. Photoshop works well enough usig Wine, the installer won't run but that's not an issue.

>You're sacrifing the exact same amount when using WSL2.

Not really. For one, you are mostly fine running Linux terminal-only so it's really light and you are using less resources with Windows+WSL than Linux + full VM Windows.

Second, if you need both Linux and Windows you typically need Windows for something heavy - e.g. a Game, Photoshop, whatever, so having Windows in the VM is typically more limiting.

Photoshop isn't heavy nowadays. Games are, yes, but the vast majority just work natively.

Also you really miss a lot of Linux if you're running it terminal only without a GPU. Being unable to use the Jetbrains IDEs on Linux is the biggest one for a developer that's universal to any field.

Also if you have to do something heavy, it's almost universally better to do it on Linux, ie, higher speed and better reliability.

> As far as GPU acceleration it's just as much of a pain inside of WSL2 than in a regular VM.

What do you need it for in WSL2? Perhaps machine learning/crypto stuff?

> Photoshop works well enough usig Wine, the installer won't run but that's not an issue

If you were using Windows it would work better than 'well enough' and the installer would run.

I actually had many serious issues with Photoshop and Lightroom in Windows, random crashes, etc..., the only solution being to rollback drivers and once uninstall windows and not do an update.

GPU acceleration in WSL2 is useful for ML, but also accelerated video encode/decode, and some simulations I had to work on. It's also very useful for anything using a GUI, as all the major UI toolkits in Linux use native GPU acceleration.

What in Linux do you need a GUI for though?