Hi i have recently downloaded the cygwin emulator on my windows xp machine and i installed it onto my laptop and all was fine. The thing is i have never known how to use it really. I am wanting to use linux on windows since i have some programs that work on linux only.

I have a program called B-toolkit which i need linux to run, also i have a program which somebody created called RVM-FORTH which runs under linux.

Does anybody know how i can make these programs runable under cygwin? or do you think i am best download fedora or ubuntu, installing it on my laptop, dual booting and using vmware to load the linux up?

I wasn't sure if linux works with vmware, it probably does but if it isn't possible to run these things with cygwin then that is what i shall do.

Thank's, hope somebody can point me into the right direction of what i should be doing. sorry about the basic question but i wasn't sure how to install linux files on windows via an emulator.

Sounds like you want to use Windows XP but add the ability to run some windows programs. I'd do it the other way around, but you can do it that way. Instead of using VMware, look into using VirtualBox. I have used both, and much prefer VirtualBox, but I've never used it under windows. Its a free download, and can be set up to share a folder in NTSF or fat32 format with the other OS. Also (with the Guest Additions) it allows cut-and-paste operations from windows to Linux and Linux to Windows.
Sonshyne5