Genuine question ( I avoid windows) is putty still necessary now that WSL is a thing?

Putty is obsolete for SSH terminals, but is still useful for serial terminals (like when you need to flash a bricked router )

Putty is a terminal emulator and an SSH + telnet client all in one. Now Microsoft offers a number of platforms that overlap to provide similar functionality.

WSL2 (aka WSL) is the Linux system that runs a Linux kernel and apps within Windows (technically a hidden HyperV VM) with some loose bindings to the OS resources for networking, files etc.

OpenSSH is the SSH client installed with Windows. It can be used via CMD or Windows Terminal + Powershell . You don’t need WSL installed. So it’s great for VMs or remote shells.

Powershell is the Windows Shell (like bash on Linux or CMD on earlier windows) that lets you run openssh and other windows CLI Apps

Windows Terminal is the new-ish (6+ years) terminal emulator that lets you run a variety of shells. Most commonly Powershell , Bash (WSL), or you can SSH to any host using openssh . It works like tmux with tabs/windows into any remote host .

I decided to lay this all out because Windows apps for SSH and terminals are a little different than Linux.

Windows has shipped with OpenSSH (client and server) for years. Windows Terminal has also been available for years, and now ships with Windows. So you do not need PuTTY.

That said, some people like PuTTY. It is much easier to setup and use. It also offers other features (like serial communications).

The OpenSSH SSH client has been included in Windows as default since 2018, so you don't even need WSL to use it anymore.

Just open a terminal and type ssh just like you would in Linux.

Sometimes, lots of companies will lock down WSL and similar because they can't as easily control what's running in it for security or policy reasons. In those cases putting would be easier to audit and deal with since it's much more single purpose

OpenSSL was available on Windows even before WSL.