How do I use Bash on Ubuntu on Windows (WSL) for my VS Code terminal?

While other questions deal with [how to use things like git-bash][1], giving the new WSL a spin as the terminal for VS Code is not the same: it gives you access to bash running on an actual Ubuntu Linux subsystem, instead of the git-bash terminal running on the Windows subsystem. So how do we get it working as the VS Code terminal, and particularly how do we get it working as a functional dev environment terminal? Unlike git-bash, this is unfortunately not as simple, because the Ubuntu Linux configuration in WSL can provide some gotchas, such as NPM trying (and failing) to run from your Windows Program Files directory due to the interaction between WSL and Windows itself in terms of pathing, and some packages such as Compass failing for what are not necessarily immediately obvious reasons to someone who is not used to developing on Linux. What's a simple way to have a reliable WSL terminal environment for VS Code where most frequently used tools will run when installed via `apt-get` or `npm`? [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/42606837/1715367