MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <31b7d2791001071117le9fe53y9634a15a6212720b@mail.gmail.com>
References: <53b627ea1001070831t71b6fc8fy62383b79b3e8fd99 AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> 	 <31b7d2791001071117le9fe53y9634a15a6212720b AT mail DOT gmail DOT com>
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 08:24:13 +0530
Message-ID: <53b627ea1001071854s3363ee4ep5c82506828935ef@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: The need for cygwin
From: Karthik Balaguru <karthikbalaguru79 AT gmail DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 12:47 AM, DePriest, Jason R.  wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Karthik Balaguru <> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I am eager to know the need for cygwin if emulators like =A0VirtualBox,
>> Bochs IA-32 Emulator , QEMU, Vmware, Hyper-V, XenServer are able to
>> provide the linux in windows ?
>> How is cygwin different from those and what are the advantages
>> provided by cygwin ?
>> What are the advantages provided by cygwin ?
>
> Cygwin is not an virtual machine, it is just an API emulator and some
> provided tools to use it.
>
> From http://cygwin.com/
>
> What Is Cygwin?
> Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:
> # A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer
> providing substantial Linux API functionality.
> # A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel.
>
> What Isn't Cygwin?
> # Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to
> rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows.
> # Cygwin is not a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of
> UNIX =AE functionality, like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to
> build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin
> functionality.
>
> Other people said it best, you can use cygwin natively on Windows
> without the need to install a driver, without the need to be an
> administrator to install it.
>
> Really, if you don't know how cygwin is useful, that means you
> probably don't need it. =A0If virtual machines do what you want them to
> do, there is no need to try using cygwin.
>
> Personally, I started using cygwin years ago when I needed an SSH
> server that was free and would run on Windows.
>

Agreed !
OpenSSH for Windows is a free package that installs a minimal OpenSSH
server and client
and provides full SSH/SCP/SFTP support.

> Since then, I've been able to use it to compile programs written for
> Linux on my Windows system and run them natively on Windows. =A0Also,
> bash is 450% better than command.com and at least 275% better than
> cmd.exe.
>

Great !

Karthik Balaguru

--
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