Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VS MSYS2

Compare Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VS MSYS2 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.

MSYS2 logo MSYS2

A Cygwin-derived software distro for Windows using Arch Linux's Pacman
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-17
  • MSYS2 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-05

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) videos

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Tutorial & How To

MSYS2 videos

QMK Firmware Tutorial - MSYS2, and Drivers (Part 1)

More videos:

  • Review - Instalando e Atualizando o MSYS2

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and MSYS2)
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 MSYS2

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Reviews

We have no reviews of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) yet.
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MSYS2 Reviews

10 Termux Alternatives
MSYS2 is an advanced technology software with a user-friendly environment that provides libraries and tools for building, installing, and running a specific featured software on native 64bit windows. The software you generate on this platform would have a particular system of command called minty to have complete control over your profiles to run them smoothly. The primary...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) seems to be a lot more popular than MSYS2. While we know about 121 links to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), we've tracked only 8 mentions of MSYS2. 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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MSYS2 mentions (8)

  • Trying to find the real MinGW
    Hi, I have been learning C++ recently using Visual Studio and Replit and wanted to switch to using a compiler with the windows command prompt. When I search up how to install MinGW there are multiple tutorials of indian people and other people who use totally different links and download pages in each video and I'm not sure which one to trust. Is msys2.org the correct website or is sourceforge or a different... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Getting “QT with MinGW support”?
    Apart from what other people already said, http://msys2.org/ is another easy-to-setup option. Source: over 1 year ago
  • I Hate Windows!
    Also FYI: there’s a project called MSYS2 which derives from Cygwin and seeks to provide a proper set of Unix tools on Windows, including split: https://packages.msys2.org/package/coreutils. Source: over 1 year ago
  • std::cout << "It's a pain";
    Still, it isn't a compiler. You also need to install the Visual Studio build tools, or GCC and/or Clang through MSYS2. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Installing MinGW W64 with FFMPEG on Windows and fixing the weird "file downloaded incorrectly" error.
    Download the latest msys2 installer from http://msys2.org/ and run it. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and MSYS2, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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