WSL Find and Install different Distributions
Discovery Different Available Distros for WSL on Windows
Introduction
Historically, WSL has always worked with Ubuntu - initial versions only had Ubuntu available actually.
Nowadays, on WSL2 many popular distributions are available although some do have some incompatibilities, or they are unstable, but still they are available.
We can split up the list on:
- Official Distributions: officially supported and backed by Microsoft. They can be installed directly from WSL CLI.
- Unofficial Distributions: usually open source projects or not backed by Microsoft. They can be installed as custom WSL Distros.
Official Distributions
Easiest way to list official online available distros is by using WSL CLI itself.
Run the following
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wsl --list --online
WSL will list you a list of available Distros:
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# The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
# Install using 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>'.
# NAME FRIENDLY NAME
# AlmaLinux-8 AlmaLinux OS 8
# AlmaLinux-9 AlmaLinux OS 9
# AlmaLinux-Kitten-10 AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10
# AlmaLinux-10 AlmaLinux OS 10
# Debian Debian GNU/Linux
# FedoraLinux-43 Fedora Linux 43
# FedoraLinux-42 Fedora Linux 42
# SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP7
# SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-16.0 SUSE Linux Enterprise 16.0
# Ubuntu Ubuntu
# Ubuntu-24.04 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
# archlinux Arch Linux
# kali-linux Kali Linux Rolling
# openSUSE-Tumbleweed openSUSE Tumbleweed
# openSUSE-Leap-16.0 openSUSE Leap 16.0
# Ubuntu-20.04 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
# Ubuntu-22.04 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
In order to install any of those distributions use wsl --install <Name of Distro>. For example, to install Debian:
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wsl --install Debian
Then log in by running
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wsl -d Debian
Unofficial Distributions
There are several ways of finding unofficial distros.
A trusted one is using scoop.sh. For example by searching wsl
As for the moment, the distros you can install using scoop are
Install them by simply running
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scoop install extras/alpinewsl
scoop install extras/archwsl
The other one is by simply searching on GitHub or Google.
One of the most interesting unofficial distros I found is NixOS. You can install it by following the steps on the README.md.
Keep in mind that most distributions that can run on Docker can be set up as a WSL Distro with a few extra steps.
Distribution Manager
A quick way to manage your Distributions is by using wsl2-distro-manager.
If you prefer to use a simple GUI with capabilities like searching distros or running them from docker images, I totally recommended.
Install it using scoop or winget
Scoop:
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scoop install extras/wsl2-distro-manager
Winget:
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winget install Bostrot.WSLManager