Linux for Windows ???

There is one other option: You can run vmware (http://www.vmware.com) on your Windows system. This will create a virtual machine that can run a number of different operating systems. In your case, you would run Linux on top of Windows. I actually use vmware to run different Linux systems on top of my Linux system without any problems.

On my Win2000 machine I have cygwin installed. It's free, it's powerful and it gives me access to all the Linux/Unix tools I need.

Thanks alot for the updates, since both of you use Cygwin, I just wanna ask
one more Q:

how come in Cygwin: when I type "man socket" it does not gimme man page?

I think "socket" should be a standard system call routine in Unix/Linux system, right?

Thanks again,
-codenamecharlie

Probably because nobody provided a man page for this call. If you check the header files, there is a socket.h in /usr/include/cygwin/socket.h so I woudl assume that it's supported.

You've got to remember that Cygwin, along with much of the linux culture consists of, and is put together by people on a voluntary basis. Yep - I'm sure that socket isn't the only thing that we'd love to have a man page, but no-one has created one. Fancy volunteering? :) Remember that cygwin is continuously evolving:)

"Probably because nobody provided a man page for this call" - hardly correct

"apropos socket"  results include:

socketcall           (2)  - socket system calls
accept               (2)  - accept a connection on a socket
bind                 (2)  - bind a name to a socket
connect              (2)  - initiate a connection on a socket
getsockname          (2)  - get socket name
getsockopt           (2)  - get and set options on sockets
listen               (2)  - listen for connections on a socket
recv                 (2)  - receive a message from a socket
recvfrom [recv]      (2)  - receive a message from a socket
recvmsg [recv]       (2)  - receive a message from a socket
send                 (2)  - send a message from a socket
sendmsg [send]       (2)  - send a message from a socket
sendto [send]        (2)  - send a message from a socket
setsockopt [getsockopt] (2)  - get and set options on sockets
socket               (2)  - create an endpoint for communication
socketpair           (2)  - create a pair of connected socketsi

man aropos

should have ended
 man apropos

I tried "apropos", but it gives me nothing:

$ apropos socket
socket: nothing appropriate


I believe I run setup.exe provided by www.cygwin.com and did install everything, how come
there is no man page for socket?

Also, i am curious, can not they just copy GNU's man pages into cygwin(non-commercial version)?
I thought this is allowed, right?  Was Cygwin developed by volunteers over the world or it was
developed by Redhat company?????

Thx,

try
apropos ls
if thisalso gives "nothing appropriate", you need to man apropos
BTW, did you:  man socketcall ??

OK, this is what I just got:

-------------------------------------
$ apropos ls
ls: nothing appropriate

$ man apropos

apropos(1)
NAME
       apropos - search the whatis database for strings

SYNOPSIS
       apropos keyword ...

DESCRIPTION
       apropos  searches a set of database files containing s
       of system commands for keywords and displays the resul
       output.

SEE ALSO
       whatis(1), man(1).

                                 Jan 15, 1991
(END)
-------------------------------------
I just tried "man socketcall" also, give nothing

"apropos  searches a set of database files "

"SEE ALSO
       whatis(1),"

man whatis
     ".......
      The whatis database is created using the command /usr/sbin/makewhatis."

makewhatis -?
     " Usage: ...............        "

well, first apology, I wanted to split the points since i want to thank all of your three guys,
however i made a mistake and directly clicked "Accept" button.

Anyway, thanks again, pjedmond is so knowledgable about all the Linux for Windows choices,
i am really impressed.

Also, khkremer and arn0ld's helps are valuable.

codenameCharlie,

You can submit a request in the Community Support area and have them change the points distribution.

try Microsoft Windows services for unix
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sfu/