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Windows Subsystem for Linux vs Multipass: catalog facts
Windows Subsystem for Linux	Multipass
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence, published by Microsoft. Included with Windows.	Free Free and open source under the GPL, published by Canonical.
Windows	Windows, macOS, Linux
Runs Linux command-line tools unmodified, with no virtual machine overhead or dual boot WSLg lets Linux graphical applications appear as ordinary Windows windows	One command for a fresh Ubuntu VM, with images fetched and kept updated for you Uses the native hypervisor on each platform for minimal overhead
Requires Windows virtualisation features to be enabled, which conflicts with some other software Filesystem performance across the Windows and Linux boundary is poor; keep files on the correct side	Ubuntu-focused; other distributions are not the use case The Homebrew cask is community-maintained and not officially supported
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: GPL-3.0
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

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