WSL alternatives
If a full installation of Ubuntu Desktop, or installing an Ubuntu virtual machine, is not suited to your needs, WSL can be used to run a full Ubuntu distro in a lightweight virtual environment.
This page describes alternatives to WSL that can be used for similar tasks but that provide different functionality.
Cygwin
Cygwin is a collection of GNU and open source packages that you can run on Windows to get functionality similar to Linux.[1]
It doesn't run native Linux apps and applications need to be recompiled to work on Windows through Cygwin.
MSYS2
MSYS2 is based on Cygwin, and provides GNU build tools for developing native Windows software.[2]
It is primarily for building Windows software.
Git Bash
Git Bash is an application that provides a Bash-like shell/terminal on Windows with Unix-style commands.[3]
It is for those who wish to use Windows but have a terminal experience closer to Linux.
Coreutils for Windows
Coreutils for Windows is a Microsoft-maintained set of UNIX-style command-line utilities that run natively on Windows, including commands such as cat, grep, and find.[4]
It is an initiative to make the terminal experience more consistent when moving between Linux, macOS, WSL, remote servers, containers, and Windows environments.