There's another option to Linux, if you're running NT or better (i.e., non-Windows 9x/ME).

Check out Unix for Windows. It replaces the braindead POSIX subsystem in NT (and NT-derived Windowsen) with a real one. It comes with various shells, perl, vi, etc. In essence, once you open a ksh window, you are in a true POSIX-compliant environment (full set of system calls).

There is an academic/research version which includes everything and is free, as well as various commercial licensing options available from two different firms (follow approroate links from the URL, above).

The upshot is, you can run your Win32-developed scripts in a normal Command Prompt window, and simultaneously in a UWIN ksh window, side-by-side, without rebooting.

Way Cool, IMHO

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