

Ask HN: A Unix-y Windows - parkovski

I&#x27;m interested in exploring a Unix compatibility layer on Windows. I know about Cygwin, mingw, Interix, NT subsystems, but I am not an expert. I also don&#x27;t think any of these really fit my goals.<p>Basically, I&#x27;m looking at this scenario: when devs are looking to buy a new computer, the default is Apple, since it is the only consumer friendly system with first class Unix support. I&#x27;m interested in what would happen if I brought that to Windows.<p>In order to be appealing, such a system would need to appear to be part of the system, not some weird compat layer thrown on top. I think this is possible but I want to hear anything from someone that has any more expertise with any of these layers, the NT kernel, or anything else related that might help me decide whether this is worthwhile exploring or not. Mostly just looking for pointers that will help me with my research. Thanks.
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vortico
Some distros of Linux are consumer friendly systems with first class UNIX
support.

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parkovski
Yeah, I get that, but a lot of people use Windows for some reason or another.
I'm not really interested in trying to get the masses to use Linux.

A lot of open source projects at least start out running on Linux and OS X,
because they have a lot more in common, and then if someone has the time and
desire, they'll port it to Windows. I'm not really happy with that.

This is not as much about technical challenges, since there are obviously Unix
layers for Windows, it's more about consumer perception.

