12 ms·

I happily await the day when I no longer need to install PuTTY on all of my fresh Windows installs.

by AdmiralAsshat 11y ago

zhengyi13 11y ago
Or worse, Cygwin, because of some obscure process that needs to connect via ssh to your Windows server...
- smhenderson 11y ago
  Cygwin comes with openssh-server [1]. I'll admit cygwin is quirky and not the best option always but I've used it to host ssh server on Windows in the past. [1] https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.sshd-in-domain https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.sshd-in-domain
- yellowapple 11y ago
  Agreed here. Installing and configuring Cygwin has traditionally been a royal pain; Microsoft offering some equivalent as an officially-supported Windows add-on (or just part of the core Windows) would be a godsend.
Someone1234 11y ago
They really need to announce a conhost replacement. The "experiments" in Windows 10 are undeniably improvements for when we still use things like cmd, but Powershell needs a modern terminal window and there needs to be a native answer to Putty for both SSH and Powershell remoting. I'd say after SSH this should be a priority for the Powershell team. Conhost is holding them back. A lot.
- zokier 11y ago
  Isn't ISE pretty much what you are asking for?
  - eropple 11y ago
    It tries, but I think ISE is super clunky and it's awkward to use. It lacks the simplicity of a bog-standard terminal while not adding features to balance out its clunkiness (akin to the difference between a text editor an IDE--the IDE had best add something I can use if I'm going to take the hit).
    - zokier 11y ago
      Could you expand why you find ISE clunky and awkward compared to standard terminal? I mean you can just type in stuff and get answers back with fairly minimal interference as far as I can tell, just like a regular terminal.
      - eropple 11y ago
        I would suggest you go look at iTerm2, because an example is worth all the words in the world. tmux integration, multiple panes in a window as well as tabs, easy buffer search, instant startup, everything. A shell host should open and do its absolute utmost to get out of my way. ISE does not do this. It's just...it's what I expect 2008 Microsoft to think a terminal should be, lacking empathy for me as a user. And maybe that's intentional--maybe I'm not the target audience. Maybe it's for mouse drivers who are forced to the CLI in extremity. But it's tasteless and it's hindering where it really must not be.
        zokier 11y ago
        Those sound nice-to-have features, but (personally) I don't think the lack of those makes something "super clunky and awkward to use", especially in comparison to standard terminals. Do you think xterm is too super clunky because it lacks all the bells and whistles? I still do not see where the lack of empathy and tastelessness is apparent in ISE.
        eropple 11y ago
        I don't think xterm is clunky, no. It doesn't try to help me, but it also doesn't get in my way. iTerm2's feature set does not increase the friction of dealing with the shell inside of it. Literally every time I have to open up ISE, I go, "jesus, why the hell is it doing things?". The experience is just straight-up repellent. It's hard to really describe past "I'd rather click a mouse than use this." And that never happens elsewhere. But anyway, your "nice to haves" are my "it's 2015, I'm not wasting my time with less." Microsoft's got more money than God, they can do something worth the time of day.
- wvenable 11y ago
  conhost is getting some upgrades in Windows 10: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10GetsAFreshCommandPromptAndLotsOfHotkeys.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10GetsAFreshCommandProm... Given that a lot of new development in the Windows world is focused on the console, I expect that we will see more enhancements in the future.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    One thing that I'm not 100% clear on: have they fixed multi-line selection in the Win10 command prompt?
    - bztzt 11y ago
      Yes
- floatboth 11y ago
  Try ConEmu, it's a very good terminal window.
phren0logy 11y ago
In a recent HN thread, someone pointed me to MobaXterm (http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/) and I have gladly deleted PuTTY.
- MindTooth 11y ago
  Been using it at work for the past few weeks. Really do enjoy it. Does include support for X11Forwarding, VNC, SFTP, etc.
- c0wb0yc0d3r 11y ago
  Do you know if it has support for using an external text editor instead of the one they provide?
  - jp-g 11y ago
    you can launch any editor from their command line like: ➤ ../../drives/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe
  - joshuacc 11y ago
    It does.
- ralphc 11y ago
  Another vote for MobaXTerm.
- TylerE 11y ago
  I use console2, with a cygwin zsh, and then run command line ssh inside that. Sounds a bit convoluted, but works really well and gives me the experience I desire, where remote shells and local ones look and act the same.
- newman314 11y ago
  Awesome. I've been stressing over finding a Windows SSH client that supports ed25519 and even thought SecureCRT recently just announced support for ECDSA, they do not have a timeframe for ed25519. Off to try out how well this works.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- Aloha 11y ago
  While I agree that a native terminal/ssh client is the best solution, putty is very much maintained still: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.ht... last change was in February of 2015
  - chadzawistowski 11y ago
    Oops, my mistake. Should have fact-checked!
egwor 11y ago
What's wrong with putty? I've been happily using it for a few years. What have I been missing out on?!
- baconhigh 11y ago
  just read this: https://noncombatant.org/2014/03/03/downloading-software-safely-is-nearly-impossible/ https://noncombatant.org/2014/03/03/downloading-software-saf...
  - zo1 11y ago
    I don't understand. Why doesn't Simon Tatham the original author of Putty just buy a domain, and put Putty there? Looks like he's piggy-backing off-of someone else's domain, and then relying on supposedly odd RSA/DSA signing of the provided binaries? Odd, to say the least.
rbanffy 11y ago
Just install Cygwin with MinTTY and be happy.

I happily await the day when I no longer need to install PuTTY on all of my fresh Windows installs.

zhengyi13 11y ago

Or worse, Cygwin, because of some obscure process that needs to connect via ssh to your Windows server...

smhenderson 11y ago
Cygwin comes with openssh-server [1]. I'll admit cygwin is quirky and not the best option always but I've used it to host ssh server on Windows in the past. [1] https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.sshd-in-domain https://cygwin.com/faq.html#faq.using.sshd-in-domain
yellowapple 11y ago
Agreed here. Installing and configuring Cygwin has traditionally been a royal pain; Microsoft offering some equivalent as an officially-supported Windows add-on (or just part of the core Windows) would be a godsend.

Someone1234 11y ago

They really need to announce a conhost replacement. The "experiments" in Windows 10 are undeniably improvements for when we still use things like cmd, but Powershell needs a modern terminal window and there needs to be a native answer to Putty for both SSH and Powershell remoting. I'd say after SSH this should be a priority for the Powershell team. Conhost is holding them back. A lot.

zokier 11y ago
Isn't ISE pretty much what you are asking for?
- eropple 11y ago
  It tries, but I think ISE is super clunky and it's awkward to use. It lacks the simplicity of a bog-standard terminal while not adding features to balance out its clunkiness (akin to the difference between a text editor an IDE--the IDE had best add something I can use if I'm going to take the hit).
  - zokier 11y ago
    Could you expand why you find ISE clunky and awkward compared to standard terminal? I mean you can just type in stuff and get answers back with fairly minimal interference as far as I can tell, just like a regular terminal.
    - eropple 11y ago
      I would suggest you go look at iTerm2, because an example is worth all the words in the world. tmux integration, multiple panes in a window as well as tabs, easy buffer search, instant startup, everything. A shell host should open and do its absolute utmost to get out of my way. ISE does not do this. It's just...it's what I expect 2008 Microsoft to think a terminal should be, lacking empathy for me as a user. And maybe that's intentional--maybe I'm not the target audience. Maybe it's for mouse drivers who are forced to the CLI in extremity. But it's tasteless and it's hindering where it really must not be.
      - zokier 11y ago
        Those sound nice-to-have features, but (personally) I don't think the lack of those makes something "super clunky and awkward to use", especially in comparison to standard terminals. Do you think xterm is too super clunky because it lacks all the bells and whistles? I still do not see where the lack of empathy and tastelessness is apparent in ISE.
        eropple 11y ago
        I don't think xterm is clunky, no. It doesn't try to help me, but it also doesn't get in my way. iTerm2's feature set does not increase the friction of dealing with the shell inside of it. Literally every time I have to open up ISE, I go, "jesus, why the hell is it doing things?". The experience is just straight-up repellent. It's hard to really describe past "I'd rather click a mouse than use this." And that never happens elsewhere. But anyway, your "nice to haves" are my "it's 2015, I'm not wasting my time with less." Microsoft's got more money than God, they can do something worth the time of day.
wvenable 11y ago
conhost is getting some upgrades in Windows 10: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10GetsAFreshCommandPromptAndLotsOfHotkeys.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Windows10GetsAFreshCommandProm... Given that a lot of new development in the Windows world is focused on the console, I expect that we will see more enhancements in the future.
- pjc50 11y ago
  One thing that I'm not 100% clear on: have they fixed multi-line selection in the Win10 command prompt?
  - bztzt 11y ago
    Yes
floatboth 11y ago
Try ConEmu, it's a very good terminal window.

phren0logy 11y ago

In a recent HN thread, someone pointed me to MobaXterm (http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/) and I have gladly deleted PuTTY.

MindTooth 11y ago
Been using it at work for the past few weeks. Really do enjoy it. Does include support for X11Forwarding, VNC, SFTP, etc.
c0wb0yc0d3r 11y ago
Do you know if it has support for using an external text editor instead of the one they provide?
- jp-g 11y ago
  you can launch any editor from their command line like: ➤ ../../drives/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe
- joshuacc 11y ago
  It does.
ralphc 11y ago
Another vote for MobaXTerm.
TylerE 11y ago
I use console2, with a cygwin zsh, and then run command line ssh inside that. Sounds a bit convoluted, but works really well and gives me the experience I desire, where remote shells and local ones look and act the same.
newman314 11y ago
Awesome. I've been stressing over finding a Windows SSH client that supports ed25519 and even thought SecureCRT recently just announced support for ECDSA, they do not have a timeframe for ed25519. Off to try out how well this works.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Aloha 11y ago
While I agree that a native terminal/ssh client is the best solution, putty is very much maintained still: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.ht... last change was in February of 2015
- chadzawistowski 11y ago
  Oops, my mistake. Should have fact-checked!

egwor 11y ago

What's wrong with putty? I've been happily using it for a few years. What have I been missing out on?!

baconhigh 11y ago
just read this: https://noncombatant.org/2014/03/03/downloading-software-safely-is-nearly-impossible/ https://noncombatant.org/2014/03/03/downloading-software-saf...
- zo1 11y ago
  I don't understand. Why doesn't Simon Tatham the original author of Putty just buy a domain, and put Putty there? Looks like he's piggy-backing off-of someone else's domain, and then relying on supposedly odd RSA/DSA signing of the provided binaries? Odd, to say the least.

rbanffy 11y ago

Just install Cygwin with MinTTY and be happy.