UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Everyone,

Gud Afternoon.
Myself Amol working on unix (vi editor ).
I want to practice shell scripts and vi editor command at home.

So can anyone guide me, if there is any standalone application or some software like vi editor which can be installed at my home PC and i can practice shell scripts and vi editor commands on it.

Please let me know as soon as possible.
Very thankful to all of you, its a nice forum which i frequently visit and get lots of help and guidance from it.

Thanks,
Amol.

There are many possible ways. Some of the most frequently cited ones:

(1) Run a Linux/BSD/whatever live CD/DVD
(2) Install cygwin (Cygwin Information and Installation) on Windows
(3) Run some version of Unix/Linux in a virtual machine inside a Windows system

Have a look at uwin too as a cygwin alternative:

uwin/uwin.mm mm document

Hi,
Nice to find lot of replies but the steps are seem to be very much confusing, isnt there any simple process by which i can install some software and i can get an application where i cqan check my VI Editor commands.

Thanks,
Amol.

Get a Knoppix CD for $US 5.00. Yo can just stick the CD in your drive, reboot your computer and you are in UNIX.

1. you could load virtual box on your pc and load an solaris or another unix environment
2. download burn and boot livecd, try belenix

All of the suggested ways are already very simple. You can pick ONE of them out of the suggestions (though you can try all of them to see which one suits you). I cannot really think of anything that can be even simpler:

(1) Live CD - as mentioned, just burn a CD/DVD or buy one, configure your system to boot from CD/DVD drive and you have a full Unix-based environment - you don't even need to install anything
(2) cygwin (or the like) - just install it like any other Windows application (through a setup.exe) and it includes Windows port of VI and shell - but not a native Unix environment
(3) Virtual machine - install VMWare Player, download a pre-built appliance image file for your favourite Unix/Linux environment from Virtual Appliance Marketplace, Virtual Appliances, VMware Appliance - VMware and just use VMWare player to play the downloaded file - the Unix session will start in the VMWare window and you can use like a native Unix environment but you don't need a native install or boot from external CD/DVD

All these are simple as we have not even told you to partition your hard disk, install a real Unix onto it, mess with any bootloader and the like. Except (1), the rest are executed fully from a Windows environment with a few mouse clicks away. If these are not simple enough, I don't know what is.