Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VS MinGW

Compare Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VS MinGW and see what are their differences

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) logo Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Learn more about how the Windows Subsystem for Linux works.

MinGW logo MinGW

MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and...
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-17
  • MinGW Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-12-08

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) videos

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Tutorial & How To

MinGW videos

MinGW или Cygwin

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Install MinGW | GCC Toolset for C and C++ Programming | Setting Path variable on Windows 10
  • Tutorial - How to install | use gcc | MinGW compiler in windows | window 10

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and MinGW)
Web And Application Servers
Terminal Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
SSH
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and MinGW

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Reviews

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MinGW Reviews

10 Termux Alternatives
MinGW is an application with all the functions of GNU that includes the runtime of MSVC and supports C99 functionality. This software is only supported and executed on 64bit Windows and similar platforms with Linux shell environment and provides its users the facility of different import types of files and libraries and move them to other software according to your specific...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) seems to be a lot more popular than MinGW. While we know about 121 links to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), we've tracked only 1 mention of MinGW. 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.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) mentions (121)

  • Attempted to setup windows-linux dual boot on my PC and screwed it all up - please help
    Dual boot is ssooo previous decades. Let me introduce you to WSL, Windows Subsystem for Linux, now you can run Linux (including GUI) seamlessly from within windows. No dual boot, no sacrifice to security with legacy boot, no restarting to use apps and tools from the other OS, use windows and Linux truly side by side. Source: 11 months ago
  • Discussion Thread
    You can ease into it by using Windows Subsystem for Linux. It's quite good at this point. Source: 12 months ago
  • Linux or Windows for coding??
    You can probably get by with wsl. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Connecting python to a scanner
    SANE is Linux-only so it will likely only work on Windows inside of the WSL. Source: about 1 year ago
  • How I installed OctoPrint in WSL and Connected to my Ender 6
    To start with installing OctoPrint within WSL, you will need to install or already have WSL installed. If you do not have WSL installed, navigate to the Microsoft Store (If you're not sure where to find this, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about ). Source: about 1 year ago
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MinGW mentions (1)

  • Is Mingw dead?
    Is osdn's mingw it a new project ? It's surprising how it provides gcc 4.8.2 and gcc 9.2.0. I guess the 4.8.2 is the last one provided by mingw.org, and 9.2.0 is the first of osdn's project? Is it maintained by the same developers? Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and MinGW, you can also consider the following products

SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem - Installation instructions for the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10.

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

XAMPP - XAMPP is a free and open-source cross-platform web server that is primarily used when locally developing web applications.

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

Laragon - All in one web server.

Termux - Terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android