pcardout

My kids like to play games from the 80s and early 90s when DOS was king. Ironically, Windows XP and Vista do not run nearly as many DOS games (even in their compatability modes) as DOSBox does. I have played DOS games (like the Xeen series) on both Windows and Linux boxes using DOSBox. There is a 10-minute learning curve as you figure out how to mount your real hard-drive to your "DOS" system, then it is smooth sailing.

If you ever have to work at the command line AND you do not have a window manager (for example you are logged in remotely to a Linux box or embedded device with ssh), then you need an old-fashioned text editor. VIM and EMACS are the "real" text-editor classics, but if you are not ready to jump in the deep end, Nano is newbie friendly and you can be editing files in minutes (vs. about an hour for VIM and considerably more than that for EMACS).

Linux has long had "midnight commander" a
linux implementation of the wonderful and antique Norton Commander for DOS. I couldn't live without it. It is a wonderful way to move files around and keep directories in synch. Far brings MC functionality back to the Windows world. If you want to avoid clicking and dragging files around and instead efficiently select single or multiple files or whole directories and move them around or view them, this is for you!

I keep all my important files on various Linux machines. On the rare occasions when I really need to use Windows, WinSCP makes it easy to suck the files/directories from a Linux box to my Windows box, and put them back when I'm through with them.

Have been using WinSCP intermittently since 2002 and never had any problems installing, running, or connecting with it.