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With MinGW you get various Unix commands, bash, and gcc, so why is using it to learn Linux "evil"? It can be used as a stepping stone to WSL2 and then stand-alo
by Bostonian 3y ago
With MinGW you get various Unix commands, bash, and gcc, so why is using it to learn Linux "evil"? It can be used as a stepping stone to WSL2 and then stand-alone Linux.
- snowkylin 3y agoWell, it just blow my mind as I never thought MinGW could be used in this way. MinGW is a good tool for using gcc or git on Windows. However, I still believe it less attractive as a general environment to learn Linux. Linux's attraction mostly comes from the powerful software that is typically run on Linux (web server, deep learning framework, etc.), and MinGW cannot cover much about this, not to mention the lack of many other important features in Linux like user management, filesystem, directory structure and remote access. Using MinGW as a start may convey a wrong first impression to newbies. Another point is that, WSL is free, super accessable via a simple click in Microsoft Store (maybe another click to turn this Windows feature on?), and with full features of Linux. In contrast, I wonder how accessible MinGW is for newbies, as I am still not sure how to install a standalone MinGW on Windows ... maybe MSYS2? in my scenarios MinGW usually ships with the compiler environment or git.