X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD,J_CHICKENPOX_54,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW,SPF_HELO_PASS,SPF_PASS X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com From: Jim Monty Subject: Lightweight, Windows-friendly Installation of Cygwin Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:55:31 +0000 (UTC) Lines: 28 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: Loom/3.14 (http://gmane.org/) X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com I use the MKS Toolkit at work. I've never really used Cygwin because every time I look at it, I run away screaming because of the gazillion choices it seems I'm forced to make, the volumes of documentation I'm forced to read, and the fact that Cygwin seems to impose whole new computing paradigms on me like /cygwin/c (huh?!). I was a Unix guy when it was UNIX(r), but now I can't be bothered to think in two operating system. The MKS Toolkit doesn't force me to do this. I stick in the installation CD, click a few buttoms, make hardly any decisions, and moments later I'm able to do stuff like this at a Windows Command Prompt: C:\Documents and Settings\Jim Monty>find "C:\Program Files\Microsoft" -type f | wc -l When I want to use a Bash shell, I type 'bash' ('bash -o vi', actually) and use a Bash shell. When I'm done, I type 'exit'. I want to be able to do this for free on a *personal* personal computer I just bought (my first one in twenty years). So I want to install Cygwin, but I don't want to have to learn anything Cygwin-ish. I think I know enough about both Windows and Unix already that I shouldn't be forced to learn anything new. It seems unfair to me to be both a dinosaur and a newbie all at once. Is there a lightweight Cygwin that just lets me run Unix-ish commands under Windows? I'm not porting software or developing cross-platform applications. I just want to 'strings' a file once in a while. Jim Monty -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple