UWIN - Unix for Windows

There are times when you are forced to use a Windows machine and there is no way of getting your hands on a PC running Linux. This situation is common if your office PCs all run windows and the company policy forbids you from installing an alternate OS on it. And you feel your productivity is severely hampered because certain tasks - which could easily be accomplished using the plethora of command line tools in Linux - do not have an easy solution in Windows.

This is where UWIN comes into the picture. UWIN or Unix for WINdows, is developed and released by AT&T Laboratories and David Korn - the creator of Korn shell. UWin basically consists of a set of tools and libraries which helps application developers compile and run Unix applications natively on windows. The tools include a complete shell (Korn Shell) for windows which is bundled with all the command line tools you find in Linux/Unix. UWIN is not a new development in fact, it was around since a long time back and AT&T even enjoyed a tie-up with Wipro technologies (a foremost IT firm in India) to sell this package for commerical use. The tie-up has since been dissolved.

UWIN comes with its own Unix compiler 'cc' but developers can also use Visual C++ or mingw (windows port of gcc) to compile the Unix applications. Some other software bundled with it include development files like libraries, groff, perl and X windows libraries. One thing that UWin lacks though is an X server. So if you want to run GUI applications in UWin, you might have to use a third party X server.

What I like most about UWIN is the Korn shell bundled with it. Considering the sub-standard Dos shell you have in windows, having a Unix shell (korn shell) is a real time saver for people who have some knowledge in Unix but who are compelled to work in Windows.

Fig: korn shell on Windows

Installing UWIN

UWIN comes with its own installer. So installing it in Windows is similar to installing any other software in it.

Fig: UWin installation in progress

Fig: Another screenshot of UWIN installer

To have a complete UWIN system, you have to download 8 setup files them being :

• uwin-base - Which contains the UWIN runtime, korn shell, daemons, services and over 100 command line tools you find in Unix/Linux.
• uwin-dev - Contains the compiler 'cc', make, as well as the libraries needed to compile the Unix applications for running natively on Windows.
• uwin-groff
• uwin-perl - Perl language packages so you can run perl programs.
• uwin-terminfo
• uwin-xbase - X windows base packages needed to run X applications (provided you have an X server running).
• uwin-xdev - X windows libraries needed to develop X applications.
• uwin-xfonts - All necessary fonts for X windows.
  

So all together it will be a 50 MB download. If you are only interested in having the korn shell, installing only the UWIN base package is sufficient.

The installation went with out any glitch for me and at the end, the installer created a short-cut to my windows desktop for the shell. And double-clicking it opened up the korn shell with all the command line tools in Unix at my fingertips.

Salient features of UWIN

• Access to almost all the command line tools from Unix on windows. 245 command line tools to be exact.
• Comes bundled with the original Unix compiler 'cc' as well as a plethora of tools like 'make' and the necessary libraries which allow Unix applications to be build and run on Windows machines with very little or no changes in the source code.
• Option to use other compilers like Visual C++ or Mingw to compile programs.
• Full fledged Perl package.
• X windows libraries for those who aspire to develop X applications on windows. Though to run those applications in Windows, you need an X server which is not bundled with UWIN.
• UWIN comes with a control panel applet (accessed through 'Start->Settings->Control Panel->UWIN') which can be used to configure some of the UWIN system parameters.
  

Uses of UWIN

• Run Unix applications natively in Windows in full speed.
• Use the full power of Unix command line tools on Windows.
• The korn shell bundled with UWIN makes a Unix user feel right at home in a Windows environment.
• Develop and run UNIX applications on Windows.
• Develop X applications on the Windows platform.
  

Drawbacks of UWIN

• UWIN does not come bundled with a X server so a user will not be able to run X applications on windows. Though there are third party commercial X servers available which can fill this gap.
• UWIN is not released under the GPL but is free to download and use for educational and non-commercial purposes.