4 ms·

Wish it was more user friendly and ran well on Windows (yes, I'm that guy). A good example of something that is user friendly, fast, secure and runs almost ever

Wish it was more user friendly and ran well on Windows (yes, I'm that guy). A good example of something that is user friendly, fast, secure and runs almost everywhere is the messaging client Telegram. Would be great if there were more programs like it.

smt88 11y ago
I think we're past the point of apologizing for using Windows. I just switched back after 5 years on Ubuntu and have been thrilled how things just work.
simoncion 11y ago
> Wish [mutt] was more user friendly and ran well on Windows... I would be shocked if Cygwin's mutt port didn't run just as well on Windows as it did on Linux. Remember that UNIX software that you compile with Cygwin becomes a native Windows executable.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  I was going to suggest this. It does.
- mappu 11y ago
  Software you compile with Cygwin's GCC becomes a native Cygwin executable, with its own concepts of paths, processes, symlinks and environment. All binaries compiled with Cygwin always inherit GPL virality. The Cygwin OS is coincidentally hosted on Windows and mostly plays nice with it. Software you compile with Mingw(-w64)'s GCC becomes a native Windows executable.
  - simoncion 11y ago
    AFAICT, Unix software that you compile with Cygwin's tools understands both Unix paths and Windows style paths. [0] It also understands Windows environment variables. [1] Cygwin is aware of Windows processes. [2] Cygwin is aware of the Windows registry. [3] The executables that are created by the default Cygwin build process are PE executables that have a dependency on the Cygwin DLLs and run on any Windows system. They are native Windows software, with a dependency on a third-party DLL. If you build open-source software against the Cygwin libraries, that software can be distributed under its original license. If you modify the Cygwin build process to produce executables that do not depend on the Cygwin libraries, then you can distribute that software under any licence you like. Regardless, if you have cash you can always reach alternative licensing terms if you reach out to Red Hat. [4] Cygwin symlinks don't make use of NTFS junction points, but I imagine that that is for two reasons: 1) Cygwin might be run on a FAT32 system. 2) There are many, many, many pieces of Windows software (some of it is big name software!) out there that blow up spectacularly when they encounter a Junction Point. (Indeed, it was my direct experience that Windows Explorer behaved very poorly when asked to recursively delete a folder containing a couple of Junction Points in -I think- pre-SP1 Windows 7. I haven't tried JPs in AGES, so I can't speak to whether or not MSFTs own tooling has gotten better.) At a minimum, software compiled against Cygwin meets the most basic definition of Windows software (A PE executable that runs on Windows systems). I hope that I have made it clear that the Cygwin libraries also provide a large amount of interoperability between Unix software and software originally written for Windows. [0] Try it out. Fire up a Cygwin Bash shell and do the following (assuming that you're running on an English-language Windows): echo "hello there" > "$USERPROFILE\Desktop\helloThere.txt" then check the new file on your desktop. rm works just fine, too. Forward slashes work in paths, also! [1] Try this out in a Cygwin bash shell: echo $APPDATA ; echo $LOCALAPPDATA ; echo $SYSTEMROOT [2] Again, in a cygwin bash shell do: ps -W [3] Do (in a Cygwin bash shell): ls /proc/registry/ [4] https://cygwin.com/licensing.html https://cygwin.com/licensing.html

smt88 11y ago

I think we're past the point of apologizing for using Windows. I just switched back after 5 years on Ubuntu and have been thrilled how things just work.

simoncion 11y ago

> Wish [mutt] was more user friendly and ran well on Windows... I would be shocked if Cygwin's mutt port didn't run just as well on Windows as it did on Linux. Remember that UNIX software that you compile with Cygwin becomes a native Windows executable.

dredmorbius 11y ago
I was going to suggest this. It does.
mappu 11y ago
Software you compile with Cygwin's GCC becomes a native Cygwin executable, with its own concepts of paths, processes, symlinks and environment. All binaries compiled with Cygwin always inherit GPL virality. The Cygwin OS is coincidentally hosted on Windows and mostly plays nice with it. Software you compile with Mingw(-w64)'s GCC becomes a native Windows executable.
- simoncion 11y ago
  AFAICT, Unix software that you compile with Cygwin's tools understands both Unix paths and Windows style paths. [0] It also understands Windows environment variables. [1] Cygwin is aware of Windows processes. [2] Cygwin is aware of the Windows registry. [3] The executables that are created by the default Cygwin build process are PE executables that have a dependency on the Cygwin DLLs and run on any Windows system. They are native Windows software, with a dependency on a third-party DLL. If you build open-source software against the Cygwin libraries, that software can be distributed under its original license. If you modify the Cygwin build process to produce executables that do not depend on the Cygwin libraries, then you can distribute that software under any licence you like. Regardless, if you have cash you can always reach alternative licensing terms if you reach out to Red Hat. [4] Cygwin symlinks don't make use of NTFS junction points, but I imagine that that is for two reasons: 1) Cygwin might be run on a FAT32 system. 2) There are many, many, many pieces of Windows software (some of it is big name software!) out there that blow up spectacularly when they encounter a Junction Point. (Indeed, it was my direct experience that Windows Explorer behaved very poorly when asked to recursively delete a folder containing a couple of Junction Points in -I think- pre-SP1 Windows 7. I haven't tried JPs in AGES, so I can't speak to whether or not MSFTs own tooling has gotten better.) At a minimum, software compiled against Cygwin meets the most basic definition of Windows software (A PE executable that runs on Windows systems). I hope that I have made it clear that the Cygwin libraries also provide a large amount of interoperability between Unix software and software originally written for Windows. [0] Try it out. Fire up a Cygwin Bash shell and do the following (assuming that you're running on an English-language Windows): echo "hello there" > "$USERPROFILE\Desktop\helloThere.txt" then check the new file on your desktop. rm works just fine, too. Forward slashes work in paths, also! [1] Try this out in a Cygwin bash shell: echo $APPDATA ; echo $LOCALAPPDATA ; echo $SYSTEMROOT [2] Again, in a cygwin bash shell do: ps -W [3] Do (in a Cygwin bash shell): ls /proc/registry/ [4] https://cygwin.com/licensing.html https://cygwin.com/licensing.html