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Microsoft ships WSL 3.0: native Linux containers, faster file access

Microsoft shipped WSL 3.0 (3.0.1): native Linux containers via the new wslc tool, virtiofs file access twice as fast, kernel 6.18; Windows 11 only.

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Microsoft released version 3.0 of the Windows Subsystem for Linux, starting at 3.0.1. The headline change is containers: a new wslc (WSL Containers) tool and open API run Linux containers natively on Windows, no extra virtualization software required. File access gets virtiofs on by default — twice as fast as before, per Microsoft — the kernel moves to Linux 6.18, and boot times drop thanks to a slimmer driver set.

The facts

  • Containers: the wslc tool plus an open API build and run Linux containers inside WSL natively.
  • Filesystem: virtiofs enabled by default; Microsoft claims doubled speed for Windows accessing Linux files (vendor-reported).
  • Kernel and networking: Linux 6.18; a new “consomme” network mode routes Linux traffic through the Windows host’s proxy and corporate network configuration.
  • Open source: the CLI, background service, container-launch components and WSLg are MIT-licensed.
  • Requirement: Windows 11.

Our take

WSL’s positioning just shifted from “run Ubuntu on Windows” to container host and first-class development platform: native containers absorb part of what Docker Desktop does, and virtiofs targets the cross-filesystem IO pain every Windows developer knows. Teams maintaining AI dev environments on Windows should upgrade and test containers and file IO on their own repos — “twice as fast” is Microsoft’s number. For producing native binaries on the Linux side, compare with the scriptc compilation route.