[rescue] SFU on Windows, etc (was: Re: OS X is certified UNIX)

[Micah R Ledbetter]

On Jun 13, 2007, at 15:29, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> [0] First there was Software for Unix, now there is Subsystem for  
> Unix ;^)

 From what I've read, it was Services for Unix (SFU), and now it's  
Subsystem for Unix-based Applications (SUA). [0]

FTR, I like SFU under XP, when I need to use XP to Get Shit Done. You  
can even run it on the abomination that is XP Home, if you edit  
the .msi and nuke the check that disallows installation. I haven't  
tried it under any of the other platforms, though.

IMO, it's a little nicer than Cygwin, if only because you can install  
pkgsrc on it and thereby use a packaging system that doesn't involve  
a bleeding GUI. I've heard that it may be faster than Cygwin as well,  
but I haven't really looked into it. IIRC, Visual Studio 2k5 has  
support for building and debugging SUA apps, if you're into that sort  
of thing.

For those inclined to run it, you may be interested in Xming, a free  
X11 server for Windows (not SFU-specific, actually). SFU comes with X  
client libs, so you can build X software, but not display it locally  
without a third party server. (Sigh... must everything be so  
difficult? This really sucked before Xming was available, because you  
had to either pay for X or use all of Cygwin to get Cygwin's X.)

For third-party software, you can use the pkgsrc from pkgsrc.org,  
which is what I recommend. If you want to use outdated pkgsrc and  
older packages, you can use the semi-official ones that come from the  
interix.com "Tool Warehouse". Rodney, the admin at interix.com, is  
helpful and responsive.

For a terminal, you can either set up OpenSSH and use putty -  
probably the nicest option - or just use Console[1], which is a more  
lazy and slightly buggier option. I'm not sure why no one has coded a  
good cmd.exe interface, but man, does the default one ever suck.  
Console is OK, and under active development, but it's not perfect. It  
is what I use, because I'm lazy. It supports tabs, and can be used  
for any Windows cli app - I have tabs set up for SFU, MSYS,  
PowerShell, and cmd.exe.

  - Micah

[0] see the following:
     http://www.interopsystems.com/tools/tt.aspx?forumid=9
     http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ko4yv (MS technet)
[1] http://sf.net/projects/console