// ITS FOSS — LINUX & OPEN SOURCE
Ubuntu is Growing Faster on Windows Than on Linux
Back in April, Jon Seager, Canonical's VP of Engineering, spoke with The Pragmatic Engineer (paywalled), telling them that Ubuntu inside Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is growing faster than native Ubuntu desktop installs. He expects WSL to pull ahead within months.
Jon was speaking on the topic of how AI is reshaping Ubuntu when the topic of WSL came up, where he pointed out that:
Ubuntu Pro, Canonical's paid security and support subscription, already covers WSL instances the same way it covers native installs. Subscribers get to take advantage of up to 15 years of CVE patching, toolchain coverage for Python, Go, and Rust, and fleet management.
Simply speaking, a WSL user on Ubuntu Pro and a data center running Ubuntu Server are the same kind of customer to Canonical; the company gets paid either way.
And, as you saw earlier, Jon also points to why demand keeps climbing. Plenty of developers don't get a say in their work laptop, and once AI or ML work lands on their plate, WSL becomes the easiest way to get a working Linux environment without a fight over IT policy.
Craig Loewen, WSL's product manager at Microsoft, called the Ubuntu Pro arrangement a "fantastic partnership" when it launched, further stating that:
This is where it gets tricky if you are rooting for the Linux desktop specifically. If WSL quietly satisfies the demand that would otherwise push developers toward dual-booting or switching entirely, does that take pressure off IT departments and hardware vendors to ever approve native Linux at all?
Canonical isn't asking that question, but its own VP describing the shift like a win makes the case for native Linux adoption weaker. Running Ubuntu on bare metal will still be better than WSL for anyone who wants full hardware control, maximum performance, and a Linux-first setup.
But if the fastest-growing way to use Ubuntu is inside a Big Tech operating system, then that's something worth thinking about.
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