Cygwin is one way to have a Linux like environment on Windows. It is a superior alternative to the command prompt, it is great for occasional text processing. I used the included ssh client to connect to remote linux servers and it works well with a little exception:  many programs using more advanced terminal capabilities had weird artifacts, characters out of place, etc. Once, I tried to look for a fix, some terminal settings on client side or server side but nothing worked. Today I updated to the new Cygwin (1.7.1-1) and the issue was solved. Here is a screenshot of Midnight Commander running on a remote linux server.

I did not use it for some time but I am glad to see it working.