There's plenty of options; WSL2 which feels more like a virtualised system but with access to your files (careful!), or the msys system shipped with git-bash, or the more traditional Cygwin.

Line endings can become an issue, as can the various BOM characters.

Yes, mintty + msys2. I use gnuplot, w3m, tmux, vim, gcc etc. on Windows 10 which is my main OS.

When I need something, I use pacman.

yep, it's called linux! :)

Stallman would point out that it's gnu/linux... but then there's a number of things he'd likely try and point out.

More seriously, this doesn't seem to be linux as much as it is bash and a handful of commonly found on linux tools - all of which you can now run on windows anyway.

Windows users: install bash and follow along.

If one were feeling contrary, one could point out that it's not GNU/Linux in this context... it's GNU/NT (WSL1 and cygwin). Unless we're talking about WSL2, in which case it is GNU/Linux again:)

I saw Stallman talk about a decade ago and was thrilled to be picked on, so asked a question about my Linux setup.

"I think you'll find," he interrupts me, like he's done to most of the other people asking questions "that it's actually GNU/Linux" and then fixes me with a look usually reserved for telling an adult that yes, they really have just soiled themselves.

"Actually," I took great joy in responding, "I'm running Mr Torvalds' kernel with a BSD userland, so really, I'm pretty sure I'll find it's not."

We haven't stayed in touch since.

Beautiful. I've been wanting to do that, actually, but I keep having a rough time because the BSDs tend to assume you're using their kernel, libraries, and userspace all together.

Groan. But I still smiled.