1. The Foundation: WSL & Debian for Front-End Developers

Before you can start with WordPress containers, you need a solid Linux environment inside Windows. We'll use WSL2 to run Debian, then install Podman to manage containers.

Install WSL: Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:
wsl --install
Windows will prompt you to restart. This will install WSL2 and the default Ubuntu distribution (you can change it to Debian later).
Install Debian: In Microsoft Store, search for Debian and install it. Once installed, open Debian in Windows Terminal and set your username/password.
Update Debian: Always make sure your packages are up to date:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Install Podman: Podman is a daemonless container manager. Run:
sudo apt install podman -y
Enable Podman in Rootless Mode: Configure Podman to run without root for safer development:
sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
Create Project Folder: Best practice is to keep all projects in a /src directory:
mkdir -p ~/src/wordpress-site

Create Podman Compose YAML: Inside your project folder, create podman-compose.yml for WordPress, database, and optional tools like phpMyAdmin or MailHog. Example:

services:
  wordpress:
    image: docker.io/library/wordpress:latest
    container_name: wp_container
    ports:
      - '8080:80'
    volumes:
      - ./wp-data:/var/www/html:Z
  db:
    image: docker.io/library/mariadb:latest
    container_name: db_container
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example

Use WP-CLI: Once containers are running (podman-compose up -d), you can use WP-CLI inside the WordPress container to manage your site:
podman exec -it wp_container wp core install --url='localhost:8080' --title='My Site' --admin_user='admin' --admin_password='password' --admin_email='email@example.com'

Congratulations! You now have a fully functional WordPress environment running inside Debian via WSL, managed with Podman, and accessible from your Windows host. Next, we'll focus on container orchestration and permissions.

Debian & Podman: The Ultimate Front-End Sandbox