4 ms·

And git does work on Windows. There's even a windows logo on the official download page. https://www.git-scm.com/downloads https://www.git-scm.com/downloads

lucideer 9y ago
The originally released Git did not run on Windows. The first Windows-compatible release was msysgit, which was effectively a mingw/msys Linux emulation layer for Windows. Not quite native, but it worked. Kind of. Not really very well at first. The current Windows download - "Git for Windows" - is still msys-based, just with a lot of compatibility/package-management/ux-polish changes. All that and the fact that recent Windows includes Windows Subsystem for Linux make the differentiation somewhat moot, but, essentially, Git is a *nix app.
- recursive 9y ago
  Here's the full quote: "What resulted was an expansive suite of programs and utilities (collectively, software) that were written in Linux, for Linux - much of which was never ported to Windows. One example of this is the popular version control system (VCS) called git. Developers could have written this software to work on Windows, but they didn't. " It's just wrong.
  - lucideer 9y ago
    Technically it's correct. It's just really odd in tone; it almost sounds like it's unusual or negative that these utilities were not written to be completely cross-platform, as if that would be a norm.
    - recursive 9y ago
      But git is not an example of software that wasn't ported to windows. It was ported to windows.
      - lucideer 9y ago
        Yeah, the wording is ambiguous. It could be construed to say Git is an example of a utility that wasn't ported, or just that it was a utility that was written in Linux, for Linux.
bunderbunder 9y ago
Git for Windows relies pretty heavily on MinGW, though. And it's best used from the included bash shell.
- lelandbatey 9y ago
  I do want to point out that Git being built with MinGW doesn't do anything to affect its compatibility. MinGW is basically just the GCC compiler suite ported Windows. It doesn't do anything about making C code written for Linux compatible with Windows. Now typically, when you install MinGW it also installs some tools that let you operate within Windows a little bit more like you're working under Linux, such as by installing a more sane terminal emulator and Windows-compatible ports of some popular programs e.g. grep. But all those tools and such are ports of Linux programs running on Windows, not standard Linux programs running atop a compatibility layer to allow them to work on Windows. I mention the above because this was an unclear distinction to me originally. Additionally, this was based on my experience with MinGW some five years ago, and I don't know if everything I've described is still true. Hopefully this slight aside clarifies things for someone.
  - geezerjay 9y ago
    > MinGW is basically just the GCC compiler suite ported Windows. That's where you get it wrong. MinGW is a compatibility layer that helps port unix apps to windows. Yeah, it comes with GCC, but it also comes with support for POSIX, including a unix shell and other standard components. Claiming that MinGW was just GCC would imply that to run Git on windows would be just a matter of recompiling the source code. But it isn't.
- alkonaut 9y ago
  Why is git so heavily "posix-y" in a way that e.g. svn is not?
  - givehimagun 9y ago
    Wasn't git created to support the development of the linux kernel? It was a linux thing first.

lucideer 9y ago

The originally released Git did not run on Windows. The first Windows-compatible release was msysgit, which was effectively a mingw/msys Linux emulation layer for Windows. Not quite native, but it worked. Kind of. Not really very well at first. The current Windows download - "Git for Windows" - is still msys-based, just with a lot of compatibility/package-management/ux-polish changes. All that and the fact that recent Windows includes Windows Subsystem for Linux make the differentiation somewhat moot, but, essentially, Git is a *nix app.

recursive 9y ago
Here's the full quote: "What resulted was an expansive suite of programs and utilities (collectively, software) that were written in Linux, for Linux - much of which was never ported to Windows. One example of this is the popular version control system (VCS) called git. Developers could have written this software to work on Windows, but they didn't. " It's just wrong.
- lucideer 9y ago
  Technically it's correct. It's just really odd in tone; it almost sounds like it's unusual or negative that these utilities were not written to be completely cross-platform, as if that would be a norm.
  - recursive 9y ago
    But git is not an example of software that wasn't ported to windows. It was ported to windows.
    - lucideer 9y ago
      Yeah, the wording is ambiguous. It could be construed to say Git is an example of a utility that wasn't ported, or just that it was a utility that was written in Linux, for Linux.

bunderbunder 9y ago

Git for Windows relies pretty heavily on MinGW, though. And it's best used from the included bash shell.

lelandbatey 9y ago
I do want to point out that Git being built with MinGW doesn't do anything to affect its compatibility. MinGW is basically just the GCC compiler suite ported Windows. It doesn't do anything about making C code written for Linux compatible with Windows. Now typically, when you install MinGW it also installs some tools that let you operate within Windows a little bit more like you're working under Linux, such as by installing a more sane terminal emulator and Windows-compatible ports of some popular programs e.g. grep. But all those tools and such are ports of Linux programs running on Windows, not standard Linux programs running atop a compatibility layer to allow them to work on Windows. I mention the above because this was an unclear distinction to me originally. Additionally, this was based on my experience with MinGW some five years ago, and I don't know if everything I've described is still true. Hopefully this slight aside clarifies things for someone.
- geezerjay 9y ago
  > MinGW is basically just the GCC compiler suite ported Windows. That's where you get it wrong. MinGW is a compatibility layer that helps port unix apps to windows. Yeah, it comes with GCC, but it also comes with support for POSIX, including a unix shell and other standard components. Claiming that MinGW was just GCC would imply that to run Git on windows would be just a matter of recompiling the source code. But it isn't.
alkonaut 9y ago
Why is git so heavily "posix-y" in a way that e.g. svn is not?
- givehimagun 9y ago
  Wasn't git created to support the development of the linux kernel? It was a linux thing first.