Re: Debian and Win32?
On Mon, 9 Nov 1998, Chang, FKK wrote:
> As I am forced to work with Dos 95 at work here - after a fruitless crusade
> to be at least *allowed* to use Debian/TeX, I stumbled upon the Cygnus
> win32 - GNU - thing.
[...]
> This cygnus-win32 base seems an ideal base for distribution of free software
> a la Debian, using the cygnus lib instead of the linux kernel. Am I right?
[...]
> If so, why don't I hear anything of it? If not, why not? Copyright issues?
> Money? Fear of M$ lawyers?
Others have pointed to Cygnus (and other companies) as a promising route
for linux advocacy. I'll see if I can find the URL for a paper advocating
just that.
> PS The same goes for XFree. Why no X server for 95/NT machines?
That's a little easier to explain. XFree86 needs a real Unix to run on,
not the pseudo-unix that the cygnus libraries provide. It just can't be
ported to Windows easily.
However, there is at least one free X server for Windows called MI/X.
It's not the fastest one out there, but it's free. (I think it might not
be free for commercial use, though.)
It might be possible to make a 'Winux' distribution of sorts. It would
lack a lot of things (Windows has no named pipes, doesn't do shared memory
the same, etc.) but it might be promising enough to lead someone on to
better things, and it would be a good training tool. Having graphical
programs through X would be necessary, I'd think, to make it a good
evangelical tool.
There's a replacement shell for Windows that looks very Afterstep-like.
Again, I've got a URL somewhere. Put it all together and you could have
tricycle that gives people a taste of what it's like to ride the Linux
motorcycle. :->
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles (248) 377-7735 ray.ingles@fanucrobotics.com
"Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any other invention
in human history, with the possible exception of handguns and tequila."
Mitch Radcliffe
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