Talk:Cygwin

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Contents 1 Hippo 2 Platforms 3 Installation 4 Distro 5 Pronunciation 6 Number of files 7 Emulator? What?

[edit] Hippo

But what about the hippo? Will someone please explain?

[edit] Platforms

Article says cygwin works on 95/98 and 2000/nt but how about xp? official site doesn't mention it. --Anonymous

'XP' now in article. http://cygwin.com/faq.html and see 'What versions of Windows are supported?' -- Maru Dubshinki

 :: Windows 95/98/ME won't be supported anymore, here is the announcement on the Cygwin mailing-list: http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2007-02/msg00275.html -- Nicolas.cuissard 22:24, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Installation

Could somebody give some information how easy it is to install cgywin? --HJH

I installed it without a problem. The tutorial on their website is *very* easy to follow, and if all else fails you can ask for help on the official Cygwin IRC channel. I don't need it for much but as a rookie *nix user it was pretty smooth all around. --goatasaur

Are you asking for information in the article? I actually thought it was kind of difficult compared to Mozilla's net-installer's. Mozilla downloads, installs, launches pretty much automatically.

1. Cygwin..

Cygwin's setup and updater are in one. First you select ftp.. set local download folders (one for packages, and one for the base) then you select packages (this is the hard part.. should have just kept the defaults although I think the defaults was all.) then it downloads.

If it runs out of disk space it may crash.

Once you get a "download successful", you then re-run setup. (it will exit.)

It then installs the packages, puts an icon on your desktop and start menu (at your option), and lauches cygwin.

On my machine, I found the setup to be highly unstable. As a result, after searching the mailing list archives through google, I downloaded a more recent "snapshot" of setup: (the latest actually):

www.cygwin.com/setup-snapshot

This works perfectly, and hey setup can't have too many bugs, or be compiled into binary too often so you're fine as far as introducing problems by using the latest snapshot.

I'm going to add some useful Cygwin tips that I always forget and have to re-learn every time I do a Cygwin install. --User:William Frantz 18:50, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

Should those tips be there? This is an encyclopedia, not really a tutorial or help page. You could link to a page of tips, maybe? -- Maru Dubshinki 01:35 Sunday, April 17 2005

I agree the tips should be killed. If you want set it up on a seperate HTML server, or post it in some forum of of Wiki and link to it, but the tips don't belong. Plus they contradict the Cygwin official FAQ 1 where it directs you to not install in C:\cygwin. I didn't read all but it's irrelevant (clearly someone did not read at all, since you incorrectly quote the FAQ: it directs you to not install in C:\; C:\cygwin is, indeed, the default directory), the fact is everyone likes things differently and so it should be on a seperate site(if you disagree you'd further prove my point that people like things setup differently;ergo, proving yourself wrong). Hehe, anyway I do think they should be somewhere else. (one last point, vi/m kicks all other editors *****... :P ) :)

--Capi crimm 05:40, 15 July 2005 (UTC)

I also agree these should be removed or sent elsewhere. Wikibooks? --131.111.193.120 14:17, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Distro

Can RedHat run inside Cygwin? Or any other distrobutions?

No. Cygwin is not Linux and does not run Linux programs, though many programs which were written for Linux can be ported to Cygwin very easily. You may be thinking of CoLinux, which is a way to run Linux distributions in Windows. — Haeleth Talk 21:48, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

How is Cygwin's name pronounced? Would it be beneficial to include it in this article?

Personally, I've always said it like "SIJE-win," though I'm not familiar with the international phonetic alphabet. Maybe we could put the pronunciation after the name, similar to how many other articles in which the pronunciation isn't very important would do it? Mpeg4codec 14:46, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

According to [1], it's "SIG-win" (in IPA, [ˈsɪɡwɪn]) - i.e. the syllables are pronounced the same as in CYGnus and WINdows. — Haeleth Talk 10:32, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

I copied that info to the article. --Supercoop 16:02, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Number of files

Beware, that if you plan on deleting Cygwin, your XP will have hard times. :)

[edit] Emulator? What?

Wouldn't it be incorrect to call this an emulator? My understanding is that it just places a POSIX layer over the top of windows, and it uses binaries compiled especially for it.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.48.90.159 (talk • contribs) 13:26, 8 March 2007.

It's a compatibility layer really, and as such it's got a valid claim to being a software emulator. Maybe we should change the infoboxy cat though. Chris Cunningham 13:33, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

The problem I have with "compatibility layer" is that it is usually used for vendor approved solutions that often take advantage of dedicated OS features to provide the compatibility. I'll call cygwin an emulator until the day MS provides a workable fork. Perhaps emulator would be a good mix. John Vandenberg 13:43, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Ick. I hate links which go to the "wrong" place though. Chris Cunningham 14:01, 8 March 2007 (UTC)