Paying for the effort

Q: Is the Cygwin distribution free software?

A: Yes, it is. You get to use the software for free. The only "strings attached" are that, in general, you must comply with the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Donations

Cygwin relies on hosting, infrastructure and system administration provided by sourceware.org and its sponsors. Please consider donating to support its work.

Individual donation links

However, the fact that you can get the software for free doesn't mean that there is no cost to the people involved in producing it for you. The people who bring you the packages in the Cygwin distribution have often invested a considerable amount of their personal time into the providing you with the best possible Cygwin experience. This is particularly true of the people who work on the Cygwin DLL itself.

Who	How	What
corinna		Cygwin project lead Only donations of 10 EUR each.
Jon Turney		X.Org packages maintainer
Jari Aalto		The dedicated package maintainer of more than 100 Cygwin packages