Dev dilemma - Windows or Linux for development OS
TL;DR: I/O-heavy .NET API (FFmpeg + Testcontainers + Rider). Already tested Dev Drive and WSL2; both choke memory/speed on a soldered 32GB laptop. Bare-metal Ubuntu runs circles around both. Looking for deep Windows tuning insights or confirmation to stick with native Linux, despite preferring Windows user experience.
Hi all,
I’m developing an API that processes and serves multimedia content to client devices. It’s built on modern .NET (.NET 10, ASP.NET Core, EF Core + Postgres, Hangfire, and FFmpeg for media validation).
I'm currently on a 32GB Windows laptop (AMD Ryzen 8845HS with soldered RAM, so no upgrades possible) using JetBrains Rider. Because the backend involves heavy filesystem I/O, process spawning (FFmpeg), and integration testing with Testcontainers, I've hit some serious performance and memory bottlenecks on Windows.
Here is what I’ve tested so far:
Native Windows 11:
I’ve set up a dev drive and added full Defender exclusions for code/build directories. Filesystem operations and FFmpeg process invocation still feel noticeably sluggish compared to Unix. Tests take quite a while longer because of this
WSL2 (Podman / Remote Dev):
I/O is faster inside the virtual disk, but running Rider via Remote Development / Gateway or crossing the \\wsl$ boundary consumes massive amounts of RAM and feels laggy. Along with Chrome, Testcontainers, and Rider, it quickly saturates the 32GB ceiling.
Dual-Boot Ubuntu 26.04 (Bare Metal):
Dual-booted on a secondary SSD, and the performance difference is night and day. Native Podman has zero VM memory overhead, test runs are dramatically faster, and it matches our Ubuntu 24.04 production environment 1:1.
Windows still has the edge for general desktop/hardware polish and daily ergonomics though, it plays a lot nicer with my dock and input devices (Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 4) as well as display scaling.
For those running I/O-heavy .NET workloads and containerized tests:
- Are there any non-obvious Windows/WSL2 tuning tricks for Testcontainers and high-churn disk I/O that make it truly competitive with bare-metal Linux?
- Or is bare-metal Linux (or macOS) simply the pragmatic path once an app is reliant on containers and I/O for testing?
Would love to hear how others balance this on 32GB machines.