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GNU Core Utilities VS gow

Compare GNU Core Utilities VS gow and see what are their differences

GNU Core Utilities logo GNU Core Utilities

The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing many of the basic...

gow logo gow

Gow (Gnu On Windows) is the lightweight alternative to Cygwin.
  • GNU Core Utilities Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-12
  • gow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-04

GNU Core Utilities features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

gow features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Gow is a lightweight package that provides essential Unix command line utilities for Windows. It doesn't require a lot of system resources and is easy to install.
  • Convenience
    By bringing many familiar Unix commands to Windows, it makes it more convenient for users who frequently switch between Unix/Linux and Windows environments.
  • No Dependencies
    Gow does not rely on additional software or complex dependencies, making it straightforward to set up and use.
  • Portable
    It's designed to be portable, meaning you can easily add it to different Windows systems without much hassle.

Possible disadvantages of gow

  • Limited Command Set
    Compared to full Unix/Linux environments or more comprehensive tools like Cygwin, Gow offers a limited set of commands, which might not satisfy all user needs.
  • No Ongoing Updates
    The project is not actively maintained, and some commands may not be updated to include the latest features or security patches.
  • Compatibility Issues
    There might be compatibility issues or limitations when using certain commands or scripts that expect a full Unix environment.
  • No Native Shell Integration
    Unlike some Unix emulation environments, Gow doesn't provide a complete Unix shell experience on Windows, which could limit usability for some tasks.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GNU Core Utilities and gow)
Server Management
47 47%
53% 53
Terminal Tools
43 43%
57% 57
SSH
47 47%
53% 53
Emulators
50 50%
50% 50

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, gow seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GNU Core Utilities mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of GNU Core Utilities yet. Tracking of GNU Core Utilities recommendations started around Mar 2021.

gow mentions (4)

  • The world if Windows was POSIX compliant
    And if need so much something like this, you can always use WSL or GOW (https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • how the fuck does this make any sense?
    Use gow, and WindTerm; and if you want an even better experience install lsd, fd, and lf all of which are downloadable via Chocolatey, the Windows package manager. Source: over 2 years ago
  • If Fuchsia eventually makes its way into the desktop/laptop space, do you think it will support Linux-like commands for the terminal?
    ¹ Bash was ported natively, zsh runs through mingw quite well. ² https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Limit image count number by deleting old image tags via FIFO-principle?
    Ah, you're on Windows, so you don't have those utilities. Looks like these days, folks are using GoW (GNU on Windows) to install some useful GNU utilities on Windows machines: https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow. Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNU Core Utilities and gow, you can also consider the following products

BusyBox - BusyBox is a single binary that provides several stripped-down Unix tools in a single executable.

MSYS2 - A Cygwin-derived software distro for Windows using Arch Linux's Pacman

Toybox (Linux command line utilities) - Toybox combines common Linux command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable...

Cygwin - Cygwin is a set of tools that provide Linux and POSIX functionality to Windows.

MinGW - MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and...

Termux - Terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android