Thoughts on Windows and CygWin

Ok, I know some people need Windows because of work, which needs it because of clients, which don’t know why they need it. It’s a long crazy food chain of people using it for no good reasons, mostly. The fact is, if you feel a Mac is too much money, Linux and BSD are FREE as in beer. With that you can install loads of working, beautiful software, FREE. If cost is that big of an issue, let me say it a 3rd time, FREE.

Of particular curiosity to me is why people are using CygWin? If you need *nix, get it! Don’t try to rely on a Frankenstein solution. No disrespect to CygWin and its maintainers, it is an amazing thing, but why not just run the OS’s that are just better for writing non-windows software?!

If you are one of these people, and you are doing most of your work in CygWin, you owe it to yourself to give recent versions of Ubuntu or Kubuntu or FreeBSD a try! You’ll really be surprised. Not only is it software by programmers for programmers, it’s also designed for everyday users now! I don’t know how many times I see mailing list postings in various mailing lists, where the problem is Windows or the fact that they’re doing things in CygWin.

Come on, the Dark Ages are over!
It IS still very Windows-centric world out there, but times are changing…