MinGW
Ranked 9 of 18 c compilers by recommenders
Free GCC toolchain for Windows builds needing no extra runtime DLLs, and binaries that run on many Windows versions. Critics call it fragile and frustrating to use.
Free GCC toolchain for Windows builds needing no extra runtime DLLs, and binaries that run on many Windows versions. Critics call it fragile and frustrating to use.
23 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 13
- approval share
- 43%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
No extra runtime DLLs needed
“It's a good compiler that provides an excellent compatibility without the need of any extra runtime DLLs.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “avoids the need for additional runtime”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “it just uses the ancient msvcrt.dll that is present in all Windows versions”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” Used daily to build and ship
“distribute the binaries built with MingW.”
Comment from 22 Apr 2026 in “Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux” “I try to build everthing using Mingw..”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “Now it's my little friend.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” Binaries run on many Windows versions
“it produces better compatible binaries on Windows, allowing me to support all Windows versions from Windows 2000 to latest”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “it just uses the ancient msvcrt.dll that is present in all Windows versions”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Frustrating and hard to use
“using MinGW will make producing a positive outcome significantly harder and more frustrating”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “Myself I have been struggling with Mingw just to compile from source.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “it's fewer hoops and hurdles than using MinGW, in my experience”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
- Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March”
Widely disparaged as garbage
“The only reason to use MinGW is because you primarily use Linux and you want to half-ass do the bare minimum.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “piece of garbage poop I don’t let infect my system”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” “MingW is evil and no project should ever use it.”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development” - Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
- Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
Libraries incomplete or incompatible
“The biggest issue I ran into was MinGW and GCC implement the FileSystem library differently”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “The Tor Project is switching to Rust” “a lot of the expected developer tools are just barely functional or don’t exist”
Comment from 24 May 2026 in “Why Is Vivado 2026.1 Dropping Linux Support for Free Tier?” “older mingw versions have `wchar.h` with only 2 functions: `wcscmp`, `wcslen`”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “Giving C a superpower: custom header file (safe_c.h)” - Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “I Fixed Windows Native Development”
Linker and flag bugs
“The MinGW invocation is missing the flag for the exception handling model”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “RedSun: System user access on Win 11/10 and Server with the April 2026 Update” “there's a bug in the linker, which puts uninitialized variables in the data segment instead of bss”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: I wrote a BASIC interpreter that boots on UEFI machines”
Other c compilers people recommend
The four most recommended other c compilers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fil-C | 160 | 60 | 73% | 13 | — | Approved |
| Claude's C Compiler | 39 | 83 | 32% | 5 | — | — |
| Visual C++ | 29 | 17 | 63% | 12 | — | — |
| Tiny C Compiler (TCC) | 22 | 3 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| MinGWThis page | 10 | 13 | 43% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
29 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“there's a bug in the linker, which puts uninitialized variables in the data segment instead of bss”
“the binaries produced by them are even larger then any MSVC produced”
“the mingw workflow is otherwise quite good”
“a lot of the expected developer tools are just barely functional or don’t exist”
“trying to use MinGW was such a pain”
“distribute the binaries built with MingW.”
“The MinGW invocation is missing the flag for the exception handling model”
“it produces better compatible binaries on Windows, allowing me to support all Windows versions from Windows 2000 to latest”
“The only reason to use MinGW is because you primarily use Linux and you want to half-ass do the bare minimum.”
“using MinGW will make producing a positive outcome significantly harder and more frustrating”
“It's a gross hack that is ABI incompatible with the predominate ecosystem.”
“MinGW/MSYS2 are flaming poop hurdles.”
“piece of garbage poop I don’t let infect my system”
“If you have a self-contained project, where you don't depend on anyone else and others don't depend on you, MinGW works great.”
“it's fewer hoops and hurdles than using MinGW, in my experience”
“just as inscrutable, fragile and new-user-hostile”
“Myself I have been struggling with Mingw just to compile from source.”
“Now it's my little friend.”
“I also like to see more support for MingW especially from open source projects.”
“MinGW is the most monstrous of monstrosity.”
“MingW is evil and no project should ever use it.”
“mingw may not be an option”
“It's a good compiler that provides an excellent compatibility without the need of any extra runtime DLLs.”
“it just uses the ancient msvcrt.dll that is present in all Windows versions”
“avoids the need for additional runtime”
“I try to build everthing using Mingw..”
“all modern versions of mingw failed to launch”
“The biggest issue I ran into was MinGW and GCC implement the FileSystem library differently”
“older mingw versions have `wchar.h` with only 2 functions: `wcscmp`, `wcslen`”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.