Practice Unix on Windows Machine

Question

I want to practice Unix (mostly KornShell (ksh) scripting and VI editor) on a windows Vista machine. What is the best solution for this? I do not like Cygwin. So anything other than Cygwin which gives the closest feel of Unix Environment without re-installing the OS.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can set up a virtual machine using VMware Player. http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ It lets you run a real *nix environment inside of Windows. It's free, and fairly easy to use.

Answer 2

I think Cygwin is really the easiest way to get what you're asking for, but another option might be MinGW. (Minimalist GNU for Windows).

If you just want to practice with specific command-line utilities, you could also look at: Unxutils.

Like others have said, you could also use a VM to install some type of Unix/Linux OS, like Ubuntu.