Hi Sheryl, >What difference does it make whether the compiler is a gcc-for-mingw that targets Linux, or gcc-for-cygwin that targets Linux? As I understand it, gcc-for-mingw cannot target Linux, since Linux does not have a Win32 API. >I went to msys because Cygwin didn't come with a binary compiler... GCC isn't installed by default with Cygwin. Open up the "devel" collection, and select the compiler and whatever other development SDKs and tools are of interest. If you have the spare hard drive space, I say install absolutely everything + source. Alas, I cannot follow my own advice, as I do not have sufficient hard drive space on my 3-year old laptop. (My primary machines run Darwin 6.6 -- a FreeBSD offspring.) >All in all, I'd starting to think that getting a Linux system is the easier approach to my problem... I recommend it. As to which distribution, I've had good experiences with SuSE, Red Hat, and Mandrake -- for Intel. And Yellow Dog and SuSE for PowerPC. Also, assuming you cannot scrounge up a second machine for just Linux, I recommend getting a second hard drive that's for Linux. That'll leave your main hard drive mostly unmolested (except for the boot loader). HTH, --Eljay
