+<!DOCTYPE HTML><!--
+ *
+ * about.html
+ *
+ * $Id$
+ *
+ * Written by Keith Marshall <keith@users.osdn.me>
+ * Copyright (C) 2020, MinGW.org Project
+ *
+ *
+ * Redistribution and use in source and 'compiled' forms (SGML, HTML,
+ * PDF, PostScript, RTF, etc) with or without modification, are permitted
+ * provided that the following conditions are met:
+ *
+ * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+ * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer as
+ * the first lines of this file, unmodified.
+ *
+ * 2. Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other DTDs,
+ * converted to PDF, PostScript, RTF and other formats) must
+ * reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions
+ * and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other
+ * materials provided with the distribution.
+ *
+ * THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY THE MINGW.ORG PROJECT "AS IS" AND
+ * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+ * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
+ * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE MINGW.ORG PROJECT, OR
+ * ITS CONTRIBUTORS, BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
+ * SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
+ * LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
+ * DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
+ * THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
+ * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
+ * OF THIS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
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+-->
+<p><strong>MinGW</strong>,
+a contraction of “Minimalist GNU for Windows”,
+is a minimalist development environment
+for native Microsoft Windows applications.
+</p>
+<p><strong>MinGW</strong> is a registered trademark of
+<a href="https://www.spi-inc.org/projects/mingw/"
+>Software in the Public Interest Inc.</a>,
+registration
+<a href="https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86017856&
+caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&
+searchType=statusSearch">number 86017856</a>;
+it has been registered on behalf of MinGW.org,
+and its use by any other project is unauthorized.
+</p>
+<p><strong>MinGW</strong>
+provides a complete Open Source programming tool set which is
+suitable for the development of native MS-Windows applications,
+and which do not depend on any 3rd‑party C‑Runtime DLLs.
+(It <strong><em>does</em></strong>
+depend on a number of DLLs provided by Microsoft
+themselves, as components of the operating system;
+most notable among these is MSVCRT.DLL,
+the Microsoft C runtime library.
+Additionally, threaded applications <strong><em>must</em></strong>
+ship with a freely distributable thread support DLL,
+provided as part of MinGW itself).
+</p>
+<p><strong>MinGW</strong>
+compilers provide access to the functionality of the
+Microsoft C runtime and some language‑specific runtimes.
+MinGW, being Minimalist, <strong>does not, and never will, attempt to
+provide a full POSIX runtime environment for POSIX application deployment
+on MS‑Windows</strong>.
+If you want POSIX application deployment on this platform,
+please consider
+<a href="http://www.cygwin.com">Cygwin</a> instead.
+</p>
+<p>Primarily intended for use by developers working on the native
+MS‑Windows platform,
+but also available for cross‑hosted use,
+(<a href="#cross-compile">see note below</a>),
+<strong>MinGW</strong> includes:—
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/releases/p15691"
+>A port of the GNU Compiler Collection</a>
+(GCC), including C, C++, ADA and Fortran compilers;
+</li>
+<li><a href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/releases/p15608"
+>GNU Binutils for Windows</a> (assembler, linker, archive manager)
+</li>
+<li>A command‑line installer,
+with optional GUI front‑end,
+(<a href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/releases/p15522"
+>mingw‑get</a>)
+for MinGW and MSYS deployment on MS‑Windows</li>
+<li>A GUI first‑time setup tool
+(<a href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/downloads/68260/mingw-get-setup.exe/"
+>mingw‑get‑setup</a>),
+to get you up and running with
+<a href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/releases/p15522"
+>mingw‑get</a>.
+</li>
+</ul>
+<div><p><strong>MSYS</strong>,
+a contraction of “Minimal SYStem”,
+is a Bourne Shell command line interpreter system.
+Offered as an alternative to Microsoft’s cmd.exe,
+this provides a general purpose command line environment,
+which is particularly suited to use with <strong>MinGW</strong>,
+for porting of many Open Source applications to the
+MS‑Windows platform;
+a light‑weight fork of Cygwin‑1.3,
+it includes a small selection of Unix tools,
+chosen to facilitate that objective.
+</p>
+<hr /></div>
+<h3>Project Mailing Lists</h3>
+<p>The MinGW.org Project operates one active discussion
+<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
+ href="https://lists.osdn.me/mailman/listinfo/mingw-users"
+>mailing list</a>,
+to which you are encouraged to subscribe,
+and to participate in the discussion.
+Please use this list,
+if you wish to seek advice on using MinGW;
+<strong>do not</strong> create wiki pages, or add comments to wiki pages,
+to ask questions.
+</p>
+<p>In addition to the above discussion list, we also operate
+<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
+ href="https://lists.osdn.me/mailman/listinfo/mingw-notify"
+>a read‑only mailing list</a>,
+for posting of notifications about project activity;
+while this may be of more interest to project contributors,
+you are also welcome to subscribe to this list,
+if you would like to receive such notifications.
+</p>
+<p>Archives of past postings,
+to each of these mailing lists, are available
+<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
+ href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/lists/"
+>on OSDN</a>.
+There are also historical archives of older
+— now defunct —
+project mailing lists available
+<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
+ href="https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/mailman/"
+>on SourceForge.net</a>;
+subscription to these older lists is no longer permitted.
+</p>
+<hr />
+<h3 id="cross-compile">Using MinGW for Cross-Hosted Development</h3>
+<p>While <strong>MinGW</strong> provides tools
+primarily intended for use by developers working on the
+MS‑Windows platform,
+many developers choose to run cross‑compiler
+variants of the <strong>MinGW</strong> tools,
+on platforms such as GNU/Linux,
+to generate applications for deployment on MS‑Windows.
+To facilitate this development model,
+many Linux distributors provide the necessary cross-compiler tools,
+derived from the <strong>MinGW</strong> tool chains;
+such cross‑compiler tool chains are
+<strong><em>not</em></strong> directly supported by MinGW.org,
+although we may be able to help out with advice related to the specifics
+of MS‑Windows applications development,
+common to the use of our own native tool chains
+and to such cross‑compilers.
+</p>
+
+<!-- $RCSfile$: end of file -->
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