Cmd.exe is an abomination though - and Cygwin defaults to using it for terminal use. I see that this project also does that.
Can't you use cygwin with PowerShell?
Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
111–120 of 149 posts
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#112Wondering how well fork() works?
I was wondering the same thing. The features page claims "copy on write fork implementation" but that is not universally true. A cursory look at the code suggests that every allocation is a Win32 file mapping object (aka NT section) underneath, which the fork worker (mm_fork) remaps into the forked process. This means the memory is shared between two processes, and not in a CoW fashion. A write to the memory region from the forked process will be visible in the parent. These are not correct semantics for fork.
I am hoping I misread the code and someone can prove me wrong here, because it looks like a cool project with a lot of potential.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#113As cool as this is, a remaining problem I'd have for using Windows is that I've found git to be slow there. For example, the responsiveness of 'git status'. I'd guess this is something to do with NTFS being optimised for things different than unix-tradition filesystems. If so, this tool wouldn't improve that. Does anyone know more about this area?
Git is built for Linux and relies on some features of Linux filesystems for speed. As long as underlying filesystem is NTFS, there's no way to speed up Git. Although, the "Support NTFS native hardlinks and emulated symbolic links" could be relevant if it does some magic there.
I wondered about the emulated symlinks here, though. NTFS supports symlinks just fine or maybe I'm not aware of a crucial difference in how they work in NTFS and Linux filesystems.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#114Cmd.exe is an abomination though - and Cygwin defaults to using it for terminal use. I see that this project also does that.
cmd.exe is _not_ the console subsystem. It's just another program running in it. If you run bash, there's no cmd to be found anywhere. Just as your shell is not your terminal emulator the same holds true on Windows.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, Cygwin makes Windows bearable. It's still Windows, but, at least, it has a proper shell, interpreters, compilers, compressors (no need for WinZip or WinRAR - think about it!) and so on. For the same reason you need MacPorts or Brew on a Mac, you need Cygwin on Windows. Unless you are happy to spend your day in Visual Studio, in which case Cygwin will not be that useful.
> WinZip or WinRAR Everyone uses 7Zip now which has a very good command line version and is OSS/free (mostly LGPL licensed, but some of their source code is licenced otherwise because it is from third parties). Plus Powershell can zip/unzip using the shell.application.Namespace API if you wish. I prefer 7zip myself, but Windows handles basic zip files fine.
Explorer does too when not at command-line.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#116I admit that I am a bit lost as to the value of this endeavour, or Cygwin for that matter, in an era where just about all commodity hardware can sustain virtualisation.
I used to have the problem of my dayjob requiring me to run Windows and use Outlook/Exchange, and Cygwin was a useful means of coping with that. But that was back in 2006. Now, it seems to me one should just fire up a Linux VM in VirtualBox, full-screen it, and pretend the encapsulating Windows doesn't exist.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#117I admit that I am a bit lost as to the value of this endeavour, or Cygwin for that matter, in an era where just about all commodity hardware can sustain virtualisation. I used to have the problem of my dayjob requiring me to run Windows and use Outlook/Exchange, and Cygwin was a useful means of coping with that. But that was back in 2006. Now, it seems to me one should just fire up a Linux VM in VirtualBox, full-scre…
or Cygwin for that matter, in an era where just about all commodity hardware can sustain virtualisation.
I use cygwin primarily as an ssh client for my local linux VMs. My IDE is vim/tmux/zsh, and I've found ssh via cygwin provides an experience that closely resembles gnome-terminal in appearance and behavior (gnome-terminal being the best terminal emulator around IMHO)
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. And when you add Chocolatey to the mix (just add it with an elevated cmd.exe as stated on chocolatey.org), you're about half-way to a GNU/Linux-ish Windows. (In elevated PowerShell, I actually used "choco install cygwin -y" after doing so!) I think in Windows 10 this is supposed to be even better with their OneGet framework that will be compatible with Choco. Things are looking better for those who have to u…
Chocolatey is a bit of a security nightmare just waiting to happen. I heard it has a veto system now but it would have been better to design it from the ground up to use a central repo where people could do pull requests. The lack of review and arbitrary ownership of packages makes it very iffy, particularly on work/production workstations or servers.
You're right about the security aspect, which is what Microsoft says OneGet will also attempt to resolve (in effect, replacing chocolatey's repo with theirs, I'd assume).
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree with you. Some of us who really like Linux are forced to use Windows at work. This project is really going to help a lot of people :)
But if you can run this, you can run VirtualBox, which is a much safer alternative (and simpler, if a live ISO meets your needs).
Unfortunately, a vm solution won't work with certain vpns, such as Cisco's. I know firsthand as I've tried it.
Re: Foreign Linux: Run Linux binaries on Windows without drivers or modification
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
My biggest gripe with Cygwin (aside performance on some syscalls) has been package management, which used to require setup.exe to add or upgrade packages. That was nicely mitigated when I found out about apt-cyg[1]. It's a apt-getish frontend for setup.exe command line. Not as nice as real apt-get of course, but "apt-cyg install something" takes care of the most important use case. 1: https://github.com/transcode-ope…
It would also be really nice if Cygwin did a quick ping on all of the package hosts and then ordered them in order of least latency relative to you. Oftentimes I have to re-start the install process because I accidentally chose a host that's slow enough to delay the install for hours.
I wish it would sort by network throughput instead of latency.