We have these unix/linux subjects in our school/college/office subjects. But sometimes we find it hard to find one to run commands and learn. So i am posting here an useful simulator that you all can download and install in windows and work the basic commands.

Here is the basic intro about it.

What Is Cygwin?

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cywin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.
A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel. The Cygwin DLL currently works with all recent, commercially released x86 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows, with the exception of Windows CE.
What Isn't Cygwin?

Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows.
Cygwin is not a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX ® functionality, like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality.

This looks quite good i might download it.

sunils wrote:We have these unix/linux subjects in our school/college/office subjects. But sometimes we find it hard to find one to run commands and learn. So i am posting here an useful simulator that you all can download and install in windows and work the basic commands.

Here is the basic intro about it.

What Is Cygwin?

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cywin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.
A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel. The Cygwin DLL currently works with all recent, commercially released x86 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows, with the exception of Windows CE.
What Isn't Cygwin?

Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows.
Cygwin is not a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX ® functionality, like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality.

Indeed, Cygwin is pretty nifty if you like the Unix way of thinking and want to have it in Windows or need general practice with Unix commands on Windows.

However, if you need to learn more, you could always use virtualization with software such as Virtualbox, so you can run a Linux distribution easily on top of Windows or your current OS and get the full experience of a Unix-like OS without any risk or having to dual-boot.

Another idea would be to use Wubi, which can install and uninstall Ubuntu Linux just like any other program in Windows. It effectively allows you to dual-boot without much knowledge and without having to go through a complicated installation process and with no risk. And it's officially supported by Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company.