Over the past few months, the VS Code team (@code) have built three new extensions for working with remote workspaces running in WSL, Docker containers, or in physical and virtual machines over SSH.

The Remote – WSL extension lets you use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) as a full development environment, right from VS Code. This new, optimized support lets you:

• Use Windows to develop in a Linux-based environment, using platform-specific toolchains and utilities.
• Edit files located in WSL or the mounted Windows filesystem (for example /mnt/c).
• Run and debug your Linux-based applications on Windows.

Commands and extensions are run directly in the Linux distro, so you don’t have to worry about pathing issues, binary compatibility, or other cross-OS challenges. You’re able to use VS Code in WSL just as you would from Windows.

Very helpful if the environment your editing in is one Python version and your desktop system is another (or Windows, etc).

Check out this quick, 2-minute video to see how easy it is to develop in WSL. then scroll down.

You can get started right away by installing the Remote Development Extension Pack.

Note: You’ll need to use the Insiders build of VS Code for now, but remote development support will eventually be available in the Stable release.

See full details here.

Excited? Let us know in the comments below.