bmatzelle/gow
Unix command line utilities installer for Windows. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
23/100
- Activity 0
- Release rhythm 8
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_license no_readme
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: n/a
- age_days: 5894
- days_rel: n/a
- days_push: 788
- n_releases_24m: 0
Adoption not part of the score
6645 stars · 366 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
Gow (Gnu On Windows) is a lightweight NSIS installer that bundles over 100 useful open-source UNIX command-line utilities compiled as native win32 binaries for Windows. It is a small (~18 MB) alternative to Cygwin that adds the binaries to the Windows PATH and an Explorer right-click shell option.
Use cases
- run unix command line utilities on windows
- lightweight alternative to cygwin
- install grep curl wget and other gnu tools on windows
- open a command window from any folder via right-click
- get unix shell tools without a large install footprint
When to choose
- you need common unix CLI tools on Windows with minimal setup
- you want a small, simple installer instead of full Cygwin or WSL
- you want binaries available directly in the Windows PATH
When to avoid
- you need a full POSIX environment or package management like Cygwin or WSL provides
- you need tools beyond the bundled 100+ utilities
- you require actively developed or officially licensed software (no license file, sparse recent activity)
Facets
application · maturity maintenance
cli developer-tools file-system package-manager developer-tools windows windows cli unix-utilities gnu-on-windows cygwin-alternative nsis-installer win32-binaries command-line
1 source
- homepage: https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow/wiki · fetched 2026-08-29 · bf497034ff79
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| bmatzelle/gow | main | 23 |
For agents
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem