Re: OpenSource under Windows (was: chmod + chown ) -- SFU !=

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Wed, 2004-04-07 at 06:20, silug-discuss-owner@silug.org wrote:
>     "Casey Boone" <ophidian_snake@hotmail.com>
>   200403/176: Re: chmod + chown
>     "Casey Boone" <ophidian_snake@hotmail.com>
>   200403/178: Re: chmod + chown
>     <dsavage@peaknet.net>
>   200403/179: OpenSource under Windows (was: chmod + chown )
>     Robert Citek <rwcitek@alum.calberkeley.org>
>   200403/181: Re: OpenSource under Windows (was: chmod + chown )
>     <dsavage@peaknet.net>
>   200403/173: ndiswrapper
>     "Casey Boone" <ophidian_snake@hotmail.com>
>   200403/174: Re: chmod + chown
>     Robert Citek <rwcitek@alum.calberkeley.org>
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
From: Casey Boone <ophidian_snake@hotmail.com>
> actually i used straight win32 ports.  i think the url is 
> unxutils.sourceforge.net, or maybe unixutls (its missing a letter).

There are _several_ sources for Win32 ports of popular Freedomware.
Many use different approaches.

Some developers release their tools piecemeal (individually).
They may have done their own port, or used something like MinGW.

And there are full kits.  A few commercial ones out there, based on BSD
licensed Freedomware.  Others are GNU-based, GPL licensed Freedomware.

The two most popular GPL kits are MinGW and Cygwin, each using different
approaches.  Cygwin is the easiest to port with, because it maintains a
very POSIX-like environment, right down to no drive letters.  But it
requires the Cygwin.DLL to run.

MinGW is a little more Win32-native, including supporting drive letters
and other DOS-NT eccentricities, but requires more porting effort than
Cygwin.  Most individually released ports to Win32 typically use MinGW
because they are then standalone.

> i have thought about the rootless x server though.  i want to install it, 
> but i cannot for the life of me come up with an actual need for it ...
> that machine doubles as my file server/linux workstation so it is rarely in xp.

I'm in the same boat at home.  But at work (school), my local IT guy
installed Cygwin/X so he can remote into my Linux notebook.

From: dsavage@peaknet.net
> If you have broadband access (or unbelievable patience), you can download
> the latest UNIX Services for Windows from Microsoft. The self-extracting
> zipfile is over 250M. USW is their name for Interix, which M$ acquired 3-4
> years ago and promptly buried. Now that they need to offer UNIX support
> for their customers, they've resurrected it.

Ahhh, no, that's not the full story.

Microsoft Services for UNIX (SFU) is a collection of numerous tools. 
Not just the Interex stuff, but largely _new_ licensed stuff from MKS
(more BSD-based), Integraph AccessNFS (fka Sun PC-NFS) and many other
tools.  It's more of a "run-time kit" than just a "porting kit" that
Interix was.

SFU verson 1.0 first came out in late '98.  That's when I adopted it, it
solved a _lot_ of issues, especially for NFS (e.g., non-Linux systems
don't have a "smbfs" so they can't "mount" SMB shares from Windows, some
Linux programs had codepage/case sensitivity issues with even SMB shares
from NT, etc...).

The ActiveDirectory to NIS service is actually kinda nice, although I'd
still use a Kerberos trust for authentication (let alone not make a UNIX
Kerberos Realm "AD's Bitch" and put OpenLDAP+Kerberos "in charge" c/o
Samba 3 ;-).

From: Robert Citek <rwcitek@alum.calberkeley.org>
> Ah, MS is getting into the Unix distribution game.  Interesting.

Um, no.  MS is simply offering UNIX "services" for Win32.  And they
aren't half-bad, at least in the latest 

> Actually, I don't do Windows.  If I download a copy of the CD, can I 
> make more copies to give to my friends?  Do you have a direct URL for 
> the download?  I'm curious to know what the EULA says.

FYI, it's _not_ a UNIX distribution.  It is a collection of services for
Windows.

As far as redistribution, be careful.  Sys Admin comes with SFU 3.5 as
of late, so just have them buy that.

Better yet, just turn them on to Cygwin or MinGW.

From: dsavage@peaknet.net
> In actual fact, they've been selling their "SFU" as they call it for some
> time. They just haven't been publicizing it much.

Correct.

> Just out of curiosity, why would you want to redistribute this? Have your
> friends download & install it themselves. If you want, you can tease them
> by saying you know where they can get a CLI FTP client for Windows that
> supports the "reget" command. That comes in handy when you're downloading
> b-i-g ISO files.

Yep.  Although there _is_ a Win32-native version of NCFTP, _separate_
from Cygwin or MinGW.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
b.j.smith@ieee.org



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