The two competing operating systems Windows and Linux oppose each other on several levels. Users of one often swear by it, only work with corresponding programs and remain impervious to the other system. This can cause big problems when they have to use applications from the other system.
Indeed, the interfaces that allow software to interact with the operating system differ greatly from each other. This partly explains incompatibility of Linux programs with Windows, and vice versa. Cygwin makes it possible to circumvent this situation by creating an execution environment to make Linux programs executable under Windows.
With Cygwin, programs designed for Linux or Unix can be prepared to run on Windows as well. While its Wine counterpart makes Windows binaries directly available to Linux, Cygwin operates as an intermediate level. The programs cannot be used directly: they must be recompiled and adapted to the Windows environment.
Cygwin has been around since 1995 and was originally developed by the American company Cygnus Solutions, before being distributed by Red Hat today. Compatible with Windows 10, Cygwin is just as compatible with other versions of Windows from Vista. The tool is primarily aimed at developers who work in parallel with Windows and Linux.
