Unix on Windows -- VirtualBox, BusyBox, Cygwin
Something I (re)discovered recently... Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions: 1. VirtualBox -- virtualbox.org Keep VirtualBox running minimized, with shared folder enabled. Then, bring it up whenever you need it. This is what I usually do, because VirtualBox is needed for other things. But, this only works on your desktop. If you have to move around to many machines, then this may not be ideal, because even though you can put VMs on USB stick, you need to install VirtualBox on those machines. 2. BusyBox (for Windows) -- frippery.org/busybox/ It's single binary, and it's ideal for USB stick. You get all the programs that BusyBox comes with. But, sometimes, you need a full set of options that you're familiar with. 3. Cygwin -- cygwin.com It's single directory which you can put on USB stick. That directory becomes your root filesystem, but you can access other drives through /cygdrive which acts like /mnt. This is my recent (re)discovery. I knew about it, but totally forgot. -- William
On Thu, Jan 07, 2016 at 03:04:53PM +0000, William Park wrote:
Something I (re)discovered recently...
Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions:
1. VirtualBox -- virtualbox.org
Keep VirtualBox running minimized, with shared folder enabled. Then, bring it up whenever you need it. This is what I usually do, because VirtualBox is needed for other things. But, this only works on your desktop. If you have to move around to many machines, then this may not be ideal, because even though you can put VMs on USB stick, you need to install VirtualBox on those machines.
2. BusyBox (for Windows) -- frippery.org/busybox/
It's single binary, and it's ideal for USB stick. You get all the programs that BusyBox comes with. But, sometimes, you need a full set of options that you're familiar with.
3. Cygwin -- cygwin.com
It's single directory which you can put on USB stick. That directory becomes your root filesystem, but you can access other drives through /cygdrive which acts like /mnt. This is my recent (re)discovery. I knew about it, but totally forgot.
I thought a number of gnu tools were available compiled with mingw. That could be an option too. Unlike busybox they are the real full tools, and unlike cygwin and virtualbox, you can actually use them in your normal environment. http://www.mingw.org/ -- Len sorensen
On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 10:04 AM, William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> wrote:
Something I (re)discovered recently...
Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions:
1. VirtualBox -- virtualbox.org
Keep VirtualBox running minimized, with shared folder enabled. Then, bring it up whenever you need it. This is what I usually do, because VirtualBox is needed for other things. But, this only works on your desktop. If you have to move around to many machines, then this may not be ideal, because even though you can put VMs on USB stick, you need to install VirtualBox on those machines.
2. BusyBox (for Windows) -- frippery.org/busybox/
It's single binary, and it's ideal for USB stick. You get all the programs that BusyBox comes with. But, sometimes, you need a full set of options that you're familiar with.
3. Cygwin -- cygwin.com
It's single directory which you can put on USB stick. That directory becomes your root filesystem, but you can access other drives through /cygdrive which acts like /mnt. This is my recent (re)discovery. I knew about it, but totally forgot.
I just have a cheap VPS (not Cloud at Cost because they are the worst) on Digital Ocean and Putty (for command line access) and VNC/xrdp (some virus scanners block VNC Viewer from running) with a BitLocker image where I store my SSH keys <http://www.howtogeek.com/193013/how-to-create-an-encrypted-container-file-with-bitlocker-on-windows/> on a portable USB key.
Way back in the mists of time we had a posix on dos(Unix had naming issues). There is also VMware. There have also been a number of providers of Unix command line tools natively compiled on windows. On 01/07/2016 10:04 AM, William Park wrote:
Something I (re)discovered recently...
Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions:
1. VirtualBox -- virtualbox.org
Keep VirtualBox running minimized, with shared folder enabled. Then, bring it up whenever you need it. This is what I usually do, because VirtualBox is needed for other things. But, this only works on your desktop. If you have to move around to many machines, then this may not be ideal, because even though you can put VMs on USB stick, you need to install VirtualBox on those machines.
2. BusyBox (for Windows) -- frippery.org/busybox/
It's single binary, and it's ideal for USB stick. You get all the programs that BusyBox comes with. But, sometimes, you need a full set of options that you're familiar with.
3. Cygwin -- cygwin.com
It's single directory which you can put on USB stick. That directory becomes your root filesystem, but you can access other drives through /cygdrive which acts like /mnt. This is my recent (re)discovery. I knew about it, but totally forgot.
-- Alvin Starr || voice: (905)513-7688 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin@netvel.net ||
On Thu 07 Jan 2016 15:04 +0000, William Park wrote:
Something I (re)discovered recently...
Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions:
How about msys2? I haven't tried it yet, but it seems promising. It's a cygwin fork that uses the Arch Linux package manager. http://sourceforge.net/projects/msys2/ https://msys2.github.io/
On Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 10:04 AM, William Park <opengeometry@yahoo.ca> wrote:
Something I (re)discovered recently...
Windows is unavoidable at work. So, you're working on Windows machine, but you need your favourite Unix tools and utilities to process some file. What do you do? So far, I found 3 solutions:
3. Cygwin -- cygwin.com
It's single directory which you can put on USB stick. That directory becomes your root filesystem, but you can access other drives through /cygdrive which acts like /mnt. This is my recent (re)discovery. I knew about it, but totally forgot.
Cygwin/X is definitely my preferred choice; I've been using it for a number of years to make Windows environments less painful to work in. <http://x.cygwin.com/>
MobaXterm is primarily a remote access tool but provides some Cygwin functionality (and an X Server) <http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/> I still haven't gotten around to actually trying Qubes OS - a "reasonably secure" OS that combines linux & windows virtual machines - so I'm uncertain if it might apply in this context. That said, there was a mailing list thread recently discussing a live USB prototype that may be interesting to evaluate. <https://www.qubes-os.org/> <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/qubes-users/IQdCEpkooto> -- Scott Elcomb @psema4 http://www.pirateparty.ca/
participants (6)
-
Alvin Starr -
Lennart Sorensen -
Loui Chang -
Myles Braithwaite -
Scott Elcomb -
William Park