Give Your Windows Users A taste Of Open Source Programs- GnuWin

[hard candy]

I love this idea. Kuddos to the developers.

From the site, parts are copied and pasted.

GNUWin II is a free software compilation for Windows. You will find three main features on it

GNUWin II includes numerous programs, completely free, which cover a wide spectrum of uses. The complete application list, sorted by type, is available here.

The software included in GNUWin is not shareware nor freeware, but original free software and Open Source software, for which the source code is available, and that is and will always be free (free both as in "free speech", and as in "free beer").
GNUWin-II should not require any particular version. But we cannot test all applications on every available Windows version, and it might happen that some programs work badly, or even not at all, on some Windows version. Should this case arise, we would be grateful if you report the problem to us.
Yes, you can give / lend / copy / distribute this CD as often as you want to.
The purpose of GNUWin-II is to help Windows users discover the free software and Open Source world. After using free software on MS-Windows, it is easier to migrate to a free operating system (GNU/Linux for instance), where the same programs are used.
Most programs included in this CD are also available for free and Open Source operating systems, such as GNU/Linux, BSD, etc.

You will also find numerous articles that explain the free software and Open Source spirit.

o help you discover the fascinating world of free software and Open Source, we ourselves wrote a few texts, notably a F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) that should answer the first questions of most new users. If a particular term sounds unfamiliar to you, the glossary might be a great help. Furthermore, technical words found within the texts are links that lead to the respective glossary entry; you can thus simply click on a particular word if you want an explanation of its meaning.

I love this part:
Even though Open Source software is generally of better quality than proprietary software, running free software leaves you vulnerable to bugs and instability from Windows itself. As it is both extremely difficult to study the system without its source code, and illegal to do so, we cannot tell what is your particular problem. To further avoid such malfunctions, we strongly recommand upgrading to a free operation system, such as GNU/Linux.
List of apps:
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/apps/en/bestlist.html

Home:
http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/en/index.html

[mrBen]

See also The Open CD (http://www.theopencd.org)

[hard candy]

Good link.

I'm going to tell my windows-using friends, "Hey I have some imported stuff you can use for no charge , an opportunity of a lifetime!" :D

[Parcival]

Originally posted by hard candy
"Hey I have some imported stuff

Make sure to put a red wrapper around your CD cases with a white cross on them. :)

[hard candy]

Make sure to put a red wrapper around your CD cases with a white cross on them.

And they do have a hole in them like that cheese. :D

Were you anyway connected or knew any of the developers?

[Parcival]

Originally posted by hard candy
Were you anyway connected or knew any of the developers?

No, not at all. It's embarrassing for me that everytime something cool from the EPFL hits this board you're the one who finds it and not me.

The EPFL is only one hour by train away from my university which would still qualify as "immediate neighborhood" in American thinking. However, Lausanne is in the French speaking part of Switzerland, so there is the language barrier. Every Swiss knows minimally another national language than the one of birth, but most of the time we still prefer within the realm of our language. For that purpose, Linux users in Bern are more focused on Zurich and the ETH (http://www.ethz.ch/index_EN).

[hard candy]

The EPFL is only one hour by train away from my university which would still qualify as "immediate neighborhood" in American thinking.

It depends, is this a really slow train? And I may not know about any new development made in Alabama even if it is the next state over. And there's not even any real hills between them and me. Of course, keeping up with software development in Alabama is probably one of the easier jobs in the world. :)

[Cerf]

It has VIM for windows, I am so going to put it on a floppy and replace notepad on all the windows computers I see

[hard candy]

I am so going to put it on a floppy and notepad on all the windows computers I see

Well, I guarantee you, once they see VIM, they'll be looking for the install disks and reinstall Windows. :D

[bwkaz]

There's also www.cygwin.com -- but it's a pain to use X in Cygwin. Most of the command line tools (gcc, binutils, make, auto*, bash, etc.) are the exact same as in Linux.

In other words, it's meant to provide a Unix environment on Windows, not a set of free software programs for average Windows users. So it's a different audience, I suppose.