GNU Windows 7?
I found something in Windows 7 that seems to have been around awhile,
Unix Application Services.
Please ignore the white space between the front part and back parts of that sentence. It just didn't seem to be right putting them both on the same line. Or typing them in the same breath.
Some years ago I received in the mail a CD from Microsoft that purported to be Unix services for Windows version 1. It was to be installed on a Server and it allowed access to Unix based printers and file systems but it was basically a Windows service. I had started using Samba and decided that I really didn't need to use the CD so it went into the coaster collection and I never installed it.
It turns out that one of the WINDOWS components in Win 7 is a thing called Unix Application Services. It doesn't seem to be anything other than a stub to download the big executable. What I found amusing is that to get the help information needed to install the "service" I had to download the add-on. Then I had to use the added stub to download the big exe. The help text was part of the first download. I guess it helped that I didn't need any....help.
Previous incarnations of a similar service was hosted on a server. Windows clients that required access to Unix/Linux files or printers connected to the service on the server and did what they needed to do through the server making the connection for the client and performing by proxy what was needed. Guaranteed to double up the network traffic. Made Unix look slow in comparison to Windows NT 4.0. Great marketing technique.
Some of the features include ODBC support for POSIX and Unix applications, presumably being able to run GNU based applications on WIndows, Visual Studio support, etc.
I guess its grandaughter or grandson is now a download-able 473 MB executable. In the description on Microsoft's webpage: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=93FF2201-325E-487F-A398-EFDE5758C47F&displaylang=en&hash=BFplrjFTrIZiuxB99dCYut4eGahLx4CQxtI9swtGwqBWmHo4CWnhgEricUI3Dru6%2b3LhVuHSNf5OsSBf%2bOSCqg%3d%3d
It describes the download as containing the GNU SDK and GNU Utilities. I have to see what this is. It purports to be Vista and Windows Server 2008 RTM compatible. So it should be Win 7 compatible?
To be honest I don't know what I'm getting myself into here but it will be interesting to see what comes out of all this. I have no freaking clue to whats really in the SDK so its going onto the Win7 running inside the Sun Virtual Box. When I figure out if its safe on its own recognizance I'll let it out.