RE: How many packages use autotools?

[Joseph D. Wagner]

> Pretty wild statement, especially considering the existance of the Cygwin
> Net Release. As far as I am aware, all packages contained in it are built
> using an autoconf-based ./configure script. Check out http://cygwin.com/.
> They use their own customized install agent (http://cygwin.com/setup.exe)
> for binary releases, which are downloaded as Slackware-style tarballs, and
> standard source tarballs that are patched when need be for source
> installs.

If we are all honest with ourselves, autoconf on Windows and the whole cygwin 
project is really just a moderately successful attempt to port applications 
designed for, and written for, UNIX to Windows without having to completely 
rewrite the applications for Windows.

When I see Norton SystemWorks or McAfee SpamKiller using cygwin, then I'll 
consider cygwin a viable development platform for Windows.  Until then, it's 
just a port.