I use Cygwin sometimes because I want a Unix-Like environment on windows. I use things like sys/types, sys/sockets, arpa/inet and a bunch of other things. I know windows has the one header winsock(2). Should I use Cygwin or what? Also, what is the difference between it and MinGW?
MinGW | Minimalist GNU for Windows
MinGW seems to be about getting something GNU-ish to compile your win32 programs.MinGW, a contraction of "Minimalist GNU for Windows", is a minimalist development environment for native Microsoft Windows applications.
Cygwin on the other hand attempts to insulate you from win32 and give you a near POSIX environment, at a small performance cost, without the hassle of installing a full Unix/Linux on dual boot or a virtual machine.
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