Utilities

Disks and Files

• Most computer data, including computer software, has a great deal of redundant information when it is arranged in directly usable form; the files can be compressed into considerably smaller files for storage. The most common compression or archive format is that of a ZIP file. One or more files of varying types can be packed into a single zip file. It can also include other information -- e.g., subdirectories in which the files should be stored, relative to each other or relative to the root folder.

  Windows XP is packaged with a zip manager already built in -- i.e., you can zip or unzip files without adding any special programs. However, if you download a file that is in some archive format other than zip, you might need to also download an archive manager program. For instance, GZIP, TAR, TGZ are used by many Unix programs; SIT, HQX, BIN, SEA are used by many Macintosh programs; UUE is used by some old email programs. I don't know the origins of ARC, ARJ, ZOO, RAR files, but they seem to be widely used too. Fortunately, you don't have to know separate procedures for dealing with these different filetypes; one good archive manager program can handle them all. -- After installing any of the following programs, you'll want to set its "options" and/or "preferences".

  Other noteworthy formats: The 7-zip format apparently has the highest compression (or did, last time I checked). And you can also create "self-extracting executables" -- these are programs containing compressed files, which get extracted when you run the program.

  • IZArc. Supports many formats, including 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BIN, BZ2, BZA, C2D, CAB, CDI, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, IMG, ISO, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MDF, MBF, MIM, NRG, PAK, PDI, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO. With IZArc you can also open CD image files like ISO, BIN, CDI and NRG. It is also possible to convert such files from one type to another (BIN to ISO, NRG to ISO).

  • 7-Zip. This is an open-source program -- i.e., you can alter the program itself if you're into that kind of thing.

  • Macintosh compression formats. The filetypes HQX and SIT are commonly used on Apple computers. If you're downloading a program, forget it -- even if you get it decompressed, an Apple program won't run on a Windows computer. But if you're downloading a document (e.g., a textfile or a picture) that someone has stored in an Apple compression format, you may still be able to make use of it. For HQX files, I think that ICEOWS looks like a good choice, though I haven't tried it yet. (That stands for "Interface de Compression Ergonomique pour windOWS.") For an SIT (Stuffit) file, the only thing that I've found is Stuffit Expander.
  
• TreeSize free [1 mb, version 2.2.1] shows the size of folders and subfolders, a piece of information not available directly in Windows Explorer. (True, you can get Windows Explorer to show that information, one folder at a time, by right-clicking on a folder and then clicking on "Properties"; but sometimes you want to get this information for many folders at once.)

• CD burners. These are programs for copying data from your hard drive onto CD's. If your CD-drive is capable of burning CD's, your computer probably came with some program for doing this -- but it might be a "free trial" program that expires after a few uses; then they expect you to buy a fancier version. But you can download a version that will work just fine. If you're not sure whether your CD drive can burn CD's, try inserting a blank CD into your CD drive and see what happens.

  DeepBurner Free [2.67 MB, ver. 1.9] (free for personal use)

  Other free burner programs (I haven't tried these yet): Burn4Free, CDBurnerXP Pro, EASY Burning, Express Burn

• Daemon Tools Lite. This little program, using some space on your hard disk, enables you to run a virtual CD drive. You can load into it any ISO file; that's the file format often used for storing an image of a CD-rom. Useful for a variety of purposes -- e.g., if you want to have access to two different CD's at the same time, or if you want to test a CD arrangent before burning it onto an actual CD.
• Data recovery programs. (I can't review these in depth because I haven't experimented much with these.) If you've merely deleted a document that you need, you can recover it from the "recycle bin", But if you've deleted a document you need and then emptied the recyle bin, ordinary measures won't help, but one of these programs might. Also, some of these programs are helpful if a disk (hard disk, floppy disk, CD, whatever) has become damaged and is partly unreadable by ordinary means.

  In the case of accidental deletions from your hard disk, try not to use your computer for anything else (including the installation of a data recovery program) between the time of your accidental deletion and the time when you attempt recovery; any such intervening uses of the computer reduce the possibility of recovering the lost file. (Thus, it's best if you've installed these recovery programs before you need them.)

  • Disk Investigator ver. 1.31 [356 kb] which searches for recoverable data, not by file, but by physical sector on the hard disk.

  • Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier ver. 3.51 --- 78 kb. "This program is designed for copying files from disks which have sustained physical damage such as scratched CD's or faulty floppies/hard disk. In the case the program can not read part of a file it will fill that section of the target file with blanks and continue on copying."

  • PC Inspector File Recovery 5.8 mb, ver 4.0] -- "does an impressive job recovering accidentally deleted files or files lost through corruption of the file system. It has some nice features, like the ability to recover files with lost headers, and to recover partitions even when the boot sector has been lost or damaged. It works with the FAT16/FAT32 and NTFS file systems. This is no home written utility - it is a serious product from a reputable German company with a long history in commercial data recovery." (from a review by "Gizmo Richard")

• The "search for files on your computer" program in Windows XP seems to be a bit buggy -- it sometimes doesn't find files that are there. It probably can be repaired, but an easier workaround is to search for your files using Agent Ransack [792 kb , ver. 1.7.3].

• Most programs require the support of additional files sometimes not included in order to run properly. Dependency Viewer (406 kb, ver 1.0.0) will tell you which files those are. (And if you're missing any of them, perhaps Google can tell you where to find them.)

Desktop Appearance

• Tclockex [456 kb, version 1.4.2] -- keeps not only the time, but also the date in the lower right corner of your screen. Actually, that capability is already built into Windows XP, as you'll discover if you increase the width or height of your taskbar.

• The US government maintains several atomic clocks that are accurate to extremely small fractions of a second. They also have those clocks connected to computers that are connected to the internet, and as a free service, they'll let you connect to them and have your computer set its clock to the exact time. Your computer won't be as accurate as the atomic clocks, but your computer will be accurate to within about a tenth of a second right after it performs this synchronization. Unfortunately, the clocks in computers aren't very accurate; you may be off by a few minutes just a day later -- so you may want to perform this synchronization every day.
       Windows XP has a feature built in for automatically synchronizing once a week. To turn it on, go to the "Adjust date/time" dialogue, either by right-clicking on the clock in the lower right corner of your screen, or by going through "Start" "Settings" "Control Panel" "Date and Time". Then go to the "Internet Time" tab, and check the "Automatically synchronize" box. Then click "okay". You can also manually click on the "Update now" button to adjust things any time you like. However, if your computer is not kept constantly turned on and connected to the internet, I'm not sure if the automatica update will works.
       If you have some Windows other than XP, or if you don't like the way Microsoft does things in Windows XP, you can get some other program to sychronize your clock. My favorite program for this purpose is Dimension 4 [206 kb, ver. 5.0.35.0]. It can be set to automatically synchronize whenever you start your computer. (You may have to tell the Windows Firewall not to block this program.)

• Trayer, by Ng KimFatt [183kb, version 2.2.1] -- use this program to specify that, whenever some running program is minimized, it should go to a tiny icon instead of a big space on the bottom row of the screen. Useful for programs that you keep running all the time -- e.g., a printer spooler. This version is freeware; some later versions are shareware.

  

• Power Center [145 kb, ver. 2.12] -- I find this helpful on my laptop computer. It's a laptop battery monitor -- i.e., it keeps track of how your battery is doing. The Microsoft Windows operating system already includes a laptop battery monitor program, but it only tells you how much of your battery is left when you ask it -- e.g., when you hold your mouse cursor over its icon. I'm neurotic enough about my battery so that I like to know at a glance, without even moving my mouse away from my current work, so I use Power Center. Admittedly, it takes up a little space on my screen. Requires Visual Basic 6 runtime file, which is also available for free. ... This program requires the file MSCOMCTL.OCX to be present in the C:\windows\system directory. It's already there, for some versions of Windows; for some later versions (e.g., XP) you will need to copy that file into that directory to get this program to work.

• RefreshEm [79 kb, ver.1.0] -- Some versions of Windows crash often, but some of the crashes are minor, not quite enough to make you want to bother with a full restart of the computer. For instance, in one common type of crash, all the icons on your desktop get messed up, so that they are displaying the wrong pictures (though they still display the right captions and clicking on them still works correctly). If this happens often enough to bother you, install "RefreshEm". Then, anytime your icons get messed up, run the RefreshEm program. It will fix the icons in just a few seconds, much quicker than restarting the computer. Then RefreshEm will close itself; it does not remain resident in RAM.

Starting, running, and controlling programs

• Startup Control Panel [58 kb, version 2.8] -- to control which programs are started each time you start your computer.
  Paul Collins's web page about startups gives a long list of the programs that might be starting up each time you start your computer -- and a description of each, to help you decide which ones you don't need -- and information on how to remove them. This may speed up your computer considerably. For similar information in a different format, see AnswersThatWork's list of TASK LIST PROGRAMS.

  Startup Delayer (996 kb, v2.3.130) can be programmed to delay the startup of some programs, so that you don't have all the programs trying to load simultaneously (which supposedly can cause even bigger delays).

• Easy Cleaner [2.81 mb, ver 2.0.6.380] appears to be the best free registry cleaner. One of Microsoft's web pages says: "The longer you run a PC without a clean reinstall, the more your Registry files grow. This is just a fact of Windows [nb: do they think that the flaws of their software can be excused, like laws of physics?] and over time it can cause your PC to slowdown. While Windows is good at adding and tracking changes in your Registry, tasks such as uninstalling software do not always cause the Registry entries to be removed." So junk accumulates in your registry (a part of your operating system) and slows down the computer. If you use a registry cleaner program, it will look for registry entries that aren't being used (e.g., pointers that don't point anywhere), and remove them.

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE)[15.2 mb -- version 6 update 7] -- needed by some other programs, such as Open Office. This is the environment in which some programs must run. Don't confuse the JRE with the SDK (software developers kit), which you only need if you're writing Java software.
  Gizmo Richard says: Most folks have Sun Java installed on their PC but many have never updated it. This is a concern as several serious security flaws have been found in the product during 2005 and earlier. If you have not already done so, it is extremely important that you update your version of Java now. Doing this is quite easy: Go to your Windows Control Panel now and select "Java" or "Java Plugin" from the list then select Update to download and install the latest version. If you don't see "Java" or "Java Plugin" in your Control Panel then turn on "Classic view" from the left hand panel.

• Vbrun 3 [225kb], 4 [772kb], 5 [1.24mb], 6 [0.99 mb] -- Visual Basic Runtime Files. These are the files you need, in order to run programs that are written in the language Visual Basic. Most recent VB programs require either Vbrun 5 or 6, but you might occasionally want to use some older VB program that requires Vbrun 3 or 4. (On the CD, I've stored these under "utilities\controlling_programs".)

• Recorder [36.7 kb] is a program from the old Windows 3.1 operating system. It could save strings of keystrokes and play them back at your request later. The program sometimes works under Windows 9x, too, though it has been omitted from those operating systems. For best results, record only the keystrokes, not the mouse motions; play back fast (not at recorded speed); play back on the same application program.

• All sorts of free programs to augment Windows are available from the Microsoft Download Center. New things get added to this collection fairly often.

Tweaks

• Microsoft Windows 95 Powertoys [204 kb] is an "unofficial" collection of around a dozen different tiny little utility programs, made by some programmers at Microsoft but not by the Microsoft company itself. Personally, I use only a few of these programs; I've marked them in RED below. For most of these programs, you can install the program by right-clicking on the associated ".inf" file; or you can install all of them by right-clicking on the file "INSTALL.INF". For uninstall, go to "Control Panel" "Add/Remove Programs". Note that some of these powertoys add capabilities to Windows 95 that were also added directly to some later versions of Windows; you don't really need to duplicate the capabilities that you already have. Here are descriptions of the Powertoys:
  • CabView (CABVIEW.INF, CABVIEW.DLL) -- treat .CAB files like ordinary folders
  • CDAutoPlay (APLAYEXT.INF, APLAYEXT.DLL) -- make autoplay work on any non-audio CD
  • Command Prompt (DOSHERE.INF) -- start a command prompt in the folder of your choice with the click of a button. I have discussed this program in my introductory text about right-clicking on files.
  • Contents Menu (CONTENT.INF, CONTENT.DLL, SHELLFIX.INF, SHELLFIX.DLL) -- get to your files without having to open their folders
  • Desktop Menu (DESKMENU.INF, DESKMENU.EXE) -- open items on your desktop from a convenient menu on the Taskbar
  • Explore From Here (EXPLORE.INF) -- open Windows Explorer no matter where you are on the network or on your own computer's file system. This is one of the programs I use often.
  • FindX 1.2 (FINDX.DLL, FINDX.INF) -- add drag-and-drop capabilities to your Find Menu
  • FlexiCD (FLEXICD.INF, FLEXICD.EXE) -- play an audio CD from the Taskbar
  • Quick Res (QUICKRES.INF, QUICKRES.EXE) -- change the screen resolution of your Windows desktop quickly and easily. Admittedly, you already have that capability without a new program -- you can right-click on a blank space on the desktop, then click on "Properties", then on the "Settings" tab, then move the "Screen Area" marker. But that's a rather long and tedious process. If you have some reasons for doing it often (e.g., if you feel most comfortable with some programs at high res and other programs at lo res), then Quick Res is a big convenience. After you install it, just right-click on the little icon, and up pops a list of screen resolutions. (Note: This is only useful for Windows 95, because Windows 98 already has a version of Quick Res built in. Just go to the "Settings" display as described above, and then go to "Advanced..." and check "Show settings icon on task bar.")
  • Round Clock (CLOCK.EXE) -- create a round analog clock without a square window
  • Send To X 1.2-- (SENDTOX.DLL, SENDTOX.INF) -- an updated version of Send To Any Folder
  • Shortcut Target Menu (TARGET.INF, TARGET.DLL) -- find out the properties for the file to which a shortcut is pointing
  • Telephony Location Selector (TAPITNA.EXE) -- mobile computer users can change their dialing location from the Taskbar 
  • Tweak UI 1.1 Update (TWEAKUI.CNT, TWEAKUI.INF, TWEAKUI.CPL. TWEAK_README.TXT, TWEAKUI.HLP) -- adjust your Windows User Interface, including menu speed, window animation, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
  • Xmouse 1.2 (XMOUSE.EXE) -- make the focus follow your mouse without clicking in the same way X Windows does

  TweakUI is the best tweak program, though there are others (a few are mentioned below). Here are a couple of features that I use regularly from TWEAKUI:

  The internet service provider that I use at home requires the use of "Client for Microsoft Networks", which requires a logon with password (possibly a blank password) each time I restart the computer. The password doesn't actually provide any protection -- you can get past it by pressing the Escape key -- it is simply there to distinguish one family member's preferences from another's. I don't bother with it. I use Tweakui to automatically login for me, so that I can be reading a book or drinking a cup of coffee or something, possibly in some other room, while Windows does this and a dozen other things during its startup procedure.

  I use many "shortcuts" on my Windows system, but I don't care to have them all begin with the words "Shortcut to." Tweakui removes that prefix.

  There are actually several different versions of TweakUI. As far as I have been able to determine, version 1.33 is supposed to work with these versions of Windows: 95, 98, NT, 2000, and m.e.

  

• Powertoys for Windows XP [4.64 mb, version 2.10]. Created by Microsoft and presumably availabe from their website, but I found it easier to download this from Major Geeks; at that page you'll also find more detailed descriptions of these programs that are included in the zip file:
  Open Command Window Here (I use this one), Alt-Tab Replacement, Tweak UI (I use this one), Power Calculator, Image Resizer, CD Slide Show Generator, Virtual Desktop Manager, Taskbar Magnifier, HTML Slide Show Wizard, Webcam Timershot, Cleartype Setup.
  An important (to me, anyway) omission from the XP Powertoys is the Quickres tool for quickly switching screen resolutions. But you can get such a tool, free, that works quite well for XP or NT. It is QuickResNT [36 kb]. This works fine on Windows XP and is very easy to install. For Windows NT there are some complications in the installation; see the program's home web page for details. -- Actually, this program may give you too many choices of screen resolutions; you may want to keep on hand a list of the ones you like.

• Other tweak programs. I've stopped using these; most of them seem to be made unnecessary by the Windows XP version of TweakUI. But I may as well keep them in my listing, just in case anyone finds a use for them.
  • Windows Configurator [313kb, version 0.6]
  • X-Setup [4.6 mb, version 6.3]. Versions after 6.3 are not free.
  • OpenExpert [649 kb, ver 1.4], adds to each files context (right-click) menu, a submenu titled "Open With", containing whatever programs you wish to associate with that filetype. This program is easier to use than the filetype associations manager that is built into some versions of Windows. Fairly self-explanatory, except here is one tip: Under the program's "options," be sure to check the box next to "Disable Windows2000/ME default 'Open with' menu." Otherwise, you'll have two "Open with" options showing each time you right-click on a file.
  • PlacesBar Constructor [539 kb, ver 1.2] to easily adjust the list of special places that appears in the left pane of the "save as" dialogue.

Running Unix on a Wintel computer

Unix used to be more difficult to use (and in fact, Unix users were proud of the difficulty). But in recent years, several GUIs (graphics user interfaces) have come into use in Unix, making it much easier and more intuitive (in the opinion of most people). The GUI, invented by Xerox PARC and copied by Macintosh and Windows, has now been copied in several Unix forms; I think the most popular for Wintel boxes are KDE (screenshots), Gnome, Enlightenment.

There are many kinds of Unix in the world today. Particularly noteworthy is the Apple Macintosh operating system, which in its recent versions is some sort of Unix with a very smooth GUI. (Thus, Apple Macintosh users are now able to install a wide variety of free programs that were developed for Unix computers.) Various kinds of Unix are used on many instititutional servers. However, the rest of this page is concerned only with installing Unix on a personal Wintel computer.

The Linux versions of Unix seem to be growing in popularity and displacing other versions of Unix (with the possible exception of Apples). Linux is an open-source version of Unix, and thus it gives individual programmers more control over their own lives. There are now many versions of Linux, distributed by many valued-added resellers who add packaging, manuals, support, etc.; but there are many versions available for free too (often suported by donations). Most of the versions of Unix that I've been looking at are actually Linux.

In recent years, downloading and installing Unix has gotten easier. It used to require downloading dozens or hundreds of files and then following complicated arcane instructions. The procedure nowadays is this: You download a few "iso" files. Each of these is an enormous files; typically one such file is around 600 megabytes. Each of these files is a CD-image. You use a CD-burner program (such as DeepBurner Free , mentioned earlier on this web page) to burn each iso file onto a CD-rom. (Alternatively, you can just order some CD's and have them mailed to you.) Then you just follow a few simple instructions, and wait a long time for the installation program to carry out all of its steps.

Nevertheless, downloading and installing Unix on your Wintel computer is an adventure which may involve some complications and risks, and that may remain the case for a while. Here is why:

No two computer models are identical. Different computers use different kinds of hard drives, keyboards, RAM, mice, displays, etc. These devices do not always follow standards. When you buy a computer that is already equipped with an operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows) from a major manufacturer (e.g., Dell or Gateway), generally the operating system has been fitted to the hardware --- i.e., the software includes drivers which can deal with that particular hardware.

But if you download or purchase a new operating system (e.g., Unix) for an old computer, you have no guarantee that the two will fit together. Generally the new operating system is equipped with drivers for the most common configurations of hardware, but if you have anything out of the ordinary, it may not work. This is especially true for notebook computers, which tend to stray considerably from standards. If your new operating system does not recognize your screen or your modem or your keyboard, clearly your computer is going to work badly or perhaps not at all. ... Since the makers of operating systems add new drivers whenever they can and subtract drivers only if they're extremely old, your chances for compatibility are slightly better if your hardware is a few years old and if you use the very newest version of the operating system. (This is one reason why some people choose to convert their old Wintel computer to Unix when they buy a new Wintel computer.)

Unless you're very very sure that you know what you're doing, you should only install Unix on a computer in some fashion that is reversible -- i.e., so you can go back to your previous configuration if either (i) the new configuration doesn't work or (ii) it does work but you don't like it. (The latter case may happen for some people who are already used to Microsoft Windows and are trying *nix for their first time.)

There are a number of different ways to run Unix on a Wintel computer.

• Completely replacing the operating system. This commits you fully to using Unix. Going back (if you decide to) may be difficult. This is the "classical" installation. If you look at some web page that describges a Unix distribution without mentioning partitioning or any of the other techniques listed below, then you're probably looking at a distribution of this complete replacement type.

• Partitioned, dual-boot systems. You partition the hard disk into two parts, one for Windows and one for *nix. Then you can decide which part to use, each time you restart the computer. At first glance, this would appear to be using the best of both worlds. But there are a couple of drawbacks: (i) Sometimes it is hard to get the two partitions to communicate with one another, so you may be unable to pass documents back and forth between the two personalities. [Ext2 Installable File System for Windows is a free program which partly remedies that problem.] (ii) Errors are sometimes made in partitioning, and they may be difficult to repair. A really bad partitioning can destroy everything on your hard disk.

• Running Linux inside Windows. A number of programs are available which can do this. No partitioning needed; the Linux system looks just like a large Windows application file. No real risk to your Windows system -- if you don't like what you get, just uninstall/delete it. Drawbacks: (i) Generally the Linux runs a bit slower when used in this fashion, because it has an extra layer between it and you. (ii) Again, you may have some difficulties communicating between Linux and Windows. Here is DistroWatch's list of Linux distributions of this type. However, DistroWatch says "These distributions are normally designed for evaluation purposes, they suffer from bad performance and package information is hard to come by."

  I recently used this approach with the "Embedded" version of Damn Small Linux, and was moderately successful. Here's the procedure: Download the file dsl-embedded-1.2.zip, which is only 53.5 megabytes. Unzip it, saving the contents in some convenient directory on your hard disk; that will take up about 120 megabytes. One of the files in that directory is dsl-windows.bat; you can either use that file directly or put a shortcut to it in some more convenient location. When you start up that bat file, it will load and run DSL.

  I tried this on my Dell Inspiron 5150, and the loading took slightly over a minute. The most important features -- screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. -- all seemed to work properly, though perhaps a bit slowly. My network capabilities (web browser, etc.) worked just fine, without any tweaking on my part. But I couldn't figure out any way to make DSL communicate with my hard disk or my CD-drive or my USB flash drive, so I had no way of passing documents between DSL and Windows (except perhaps via the internet, which would be a little inconvenient). If you figure out how to make it communicate, let me know. Of course, what parts of DSL work will vary from one computer to another, since different hardware configurations require different drivers. By the way, I was also uncomfortable with another aspect of DSL: All the icons and programs looked very unfamiliar. Contrast that with Ubuntu Linux, discussed a few paragraphs below.

  If you want to experiment with DSL, here's a tip: Have at least one program -- perhaps a small one, like Notepad -- already running, when you start DSL. Then ALT-TAB will still work to switch applications, so you can get out of DSL temporarily and do something with your Windows system. Before I discovered this trick, the only way I could get back to Windows was by shutting down DSL altogether.

• Running Windows inside Linux. Convert a computer entirely to Linux (or start with a computer that was originally configured with Linux) and then run a program that emulates Windows inside Linux. This can be done using Wine (which is free), or using a commercial implementation of Wine, such as CrossOver. I haven't experimented with this yet.

• Using a "Live CD" installation. The idea of a "Live CD" is that nothing needs to be installed on the hard disk of your computer. You load the CD, and it just uses the RAM (temporary memory space) in your computer. Thus, there is no risk of bad installation -- if you don't like what you get, just remove the CD and restart the computer, and you'll have your familiar old Windows computer again. Drawbacks: It may take a bit of extra time to load, since your CD-drive is slower than your hard drive. Also, there are extra complications if you want to save any additions or alterations that you want to make in the Linux configuration. And, as usual, there are difficulties about communication between Linux and Windows.

  I tried this approach with a Live CD version of Ubuntu Linx, and was moderately successful. I burned the 674 megabyte iso file onto a CD-rom, and then rebooted from that drive. The system took around 4 minutes to start up, but after that all the basics (keyboard, screen, mouse) worked properly. Moreover, the desktop looked not too different from what I'm used to with Windows (but that may be just personal taste). My internet connection did not work, and I couldn't access the hard disk, but my USB flash drive did work. Thus, I do have a method for passing files back and forth -- i.e., I can work on a document in one operating system, copy it to my flash drive, and switch to the other operating system. Let me know if you figure out how to make Ubuntu Linux communicate with the internet or the hard drive. Of course, what parts of Ubuntu Linux work will vary from one computer to another, since different hardware configurations require different drivers. Also with version of Ubuntu -- that experiment was some time ago; perhaps I'll have better luck with a newer version.

  You may be wondering, how do you boot from a CD-drive? The details will vary from one computer to another, but it will probably be something similar to what I found on my Dell Inspiron 5150: At the beginning of the bootup process, there is a moment when the words "F2 for setup, F12 for boot menu" flash on the screen. At that moment, if I press either the F2 key or the F12 key, I get several options. If I press neither key, then the computer simply goes into its default boot procedure. The F12 key lets me override the default -- i.e., it lets me choose whether to boot from the hard disk, the CD-drive, the USB flash drive, or some other device. The F2 key lets me change the default. The original default was to always boot from the hard drive, but I've changed it so that my computer will first look to see whether there is a bootable CD in the CD-drive. If there is, the computer will boot from there. If there isn't, the computer will boot from the hard drive (i.e., Windows).

• Using a partial Linux emulator under Windows. That's apparently the approach used by Uwin, available free from AT&T Research. It enables some Unix programs to run under Windows.

• Using Cygwin. Cygwin is "a Linux-like environment for Windows." These tools do not enable native Linux apps to run under Windows. But these tools do make it easier for a programmer to rewrite a Linux application so that it will run under Windows; the resulting applications are called "packages." Here is the list of packages. And here are some packages that may be of particular interest to mathematicians:
  • Xfig, a scalable vector graphics (SVG) program compatible with tex
  • Singular, a computer algebra system for singularity theory and algebraic geometry
  • Macaulay, a software system devoted to supporting research in algebraic geometry and commutative algebra
  • XBasic, a clone of Visual Basic
  • Octave, a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations, mostly compatible with Matlab.
  To use the Cygwin system, first install its basic setup from its web page at http://www.cygwin.com/. You can install some of its packages from there too. After that, whenever you want to install a Windows program whose installation instructions say "requires Cygwin", you can just go ahead and install the program as though it were an ordinary Windows program.

• Using a Windows shell that looks like Unix. That's all some people really want, and it's provided by LiteStep.

• Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO
• Linux Online seems to be the closest thing to an official home page for Linux, but it doesn't claim to be that.
• The home page of Linus Torvalds (the person who started Linux) isn't actually helpful, but might amuse you.
• Comparison of Linux Distributions
• Linux on Laptops and 2nd location of same (answers to special installation problems)
• A list of small Unix distributions
• Some Unixes other than Linux: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD