Provide WSL guidance on download page

[MattIPv4]

Moving a convo out of #7650.

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@ljharb (in PR Review):

it'd be nice to have a "WSL" option somehow prominent, so that windows users who have WSL can choose nvm, devbox, etc, but atm this seems good

@MattIPv4 (in Issue Comment):

We should move this discussion to an issue, but yeh, either we should update "Linux" to be "Linux (+ WSL)" or add a dedicated "WSL" option in the dropdown. Or, we could display a banner whenever Windows is selected noting that if the user is using WSL, they should refer to the Linux options.

@avivkeller (in Issue Comment):

It's in the name, Windows Subsystem for Linux. IMHO users should be expected to know that if they WSL, they can refer to the Linux instructions

@MattIPv4 (in Issue Comment):

The whole point of this page is to not make assumptions, this page is for beginners that're new to Node.js (and often development generally). They may have heard that WSL is the thing to use for Windows dev, and not know anything beyond that.

@ljharb (in Issue Comment):

Yes, but windows users who are not using or aware of WSL won't know that WSL even exists as an option in the first place such that they could use the things listed under Linux.

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Not sure quite what the perfect solution is, but we should have a way to educate Windows users about WSL -- both that it is an option to them alongside conventional Windows development using Powershell, and also that if they do want to use WSL they should follow the Linux install options that we provide.

[avivkeller]

Despite my initial skepticism, I am +1 to making the website simpler for new-comers.

[ljharb]

Some options off the top of my head:

• things that work on WSL but not otherwise on Windows still appear in the dropdown, and the snippet shows a warning and a link to a WSL guide somewhere
• always show a "did you know? WSL exists!" banner when Windows is selected, that links to a WSL guide somewhere

[Vishal-K-988]

Can you give me more idea about what do we have to do in this issue ?

Till now what I have concluded that :

On the download page of nodejs we need to informWindows users about WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) :

1. We need to add clear guidance so Windows users know that WSL is an option for running Node.js.
2. The goal is to educate users that, with WSL, they can use the Linux installation instructions (like using nvm, devbox, etc.) even if they are on Windows.

What we might do is :

a. Renaming "Linux" to "Linux (+ WSL)"
b. Adding a dedicated "WSL" option in the OS selection dropdown
c. Or displaying a banner/note when Windows is selected, telling users with WSL to refer to the Linux options

[ovflowd]

Based on #7758 (review), y'all can see I'm -1 with the idea of having WSL notices within our website. There's no precedence in other major runtimes for something such as WSL to be documented. Have we actually gotten real complaints from users saying they didn't know they could use Linux options within WSL?

Also should we really have something on our website? Searching for "nodejs on wsl" 1st search results goes to asn official Microsoft article of how to install Node.js ON WSL; Since WSL is a Microsoft product, shouldn't they specifically state their instructions?

Otherwise this goes kinda our directive of not promoting company-products on our downloads page.

[MattIPv4]

Otherwise this goes kinda our directive of not promoting company-products on our downloads page.

I'm not sure that's true -- WSL isn't just some company's product, it's a core feature of a major OS that we do provide instructions for.

[MattIPv4]

I still think a notice is the right move, this page is meant to be educating new users on the options available to them, so let's do that (especially when our Windows options are so limited). I don't think whether other runtimes do this or not is really a factor, let's chart our own course and be helpful for our users.

[MattIPv4]

And to be clear, this is not about teaching users that already are using WSL that they can use the Linux options available. I agree in that situation they probably already know that or can search online. This is about educating new developers who have a Windows box and want to use Node.js that there is another way, using WSL. They aren't going to be able to search for that because they don't know it exists -- a notice is educating them and giving them new knowledge.