[Wolves] Bash/Linux on Windows

[James Turner]

On Wednesday 05 Jan 2005 14:14, trig wrote:

> So because I'm gonna be in Winders, I could do with a way of feeling at
> home and kicking open a bash shell to check a few things out, or being
> able to start KDE/Gnome... I'm not going to install VMWare, because I'm
> not paying for a licence, I was thinking of using cygwyn.. Has anyone here
> had any exposure to it? What is it like? Does anyone have a decent HOW-TO
> for it? I could sit and play, but I really don't have the time, I need to
> get on and do these documents so I can be back in Linux ASAP..

It's worked well for me in the past. I've:

 - Replaced Command Prompt shortcut on Start Menu with Bash, then used it
   for all command-liney stuff.
 - Used XFree86 to run Gnome and KDE desktops from a remote machine, as
   well as various applications. Have also run XFree86 inside a Windows
   Terminal Server connection(!)
 - Used SQUID in an organisation with an irrational bias towards using
   Windows servers and against Linux.

When I first tried XFree86 it was only available as source. It compiled fine 
with Cygwin's GCC. (eventually)

I gather KDE and Gtk+ are available to run natively under Cygwin, not
sure about Gnome. Not tried either. Can't remember whether I tried Apache.

The installer is quite streightforward once you get used to it, despite
various user interface quirks compared to the usual Windows setup.exe fare.

May be able to give some pointers for specific tasks if you like... is there 
anything you'd like to know?

James