# MandrakeMove and Programming **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 16, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755 "2004-01-16T14:45:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/1 "2004-01-16T14:45:54Z")
I will have a full-blown Mandrake 9.2 installed at work. I want to be able to floppy-copy my code, bring it home and do some development at home. At this time I don’t have a Linux box at home, and I really don’t want to install Mandrake on my home PC right now. Can I somehow use MandrakeMove at home on my Windows laptop to do programming (C++)? ---
**Author:** ![leenmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/2 "2004-01-16T16:39:45Z")
[Cygwin](http://www.cygwin.com/) can give you a shell environment on Windows. I’ve used it before and liked it very much for allowing me to work on scripts when only my wife’s computer was available. That is assuming you are doing shell-scripting. If you are programming in some other language, then MandrakeMove should certainly let you do it _if the libraries are included on the cd_ Should work. Can’t hurt to try. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/3 "2004-01-17T17:43:55Z")
Is it possible to do development under MandrakeMove? (Just trying one final bump, thanks.) ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/4 "2004-01-17T21:33:35Z")
Dunno if you’re going to find anyone who’se tried it. Like **leenmi** said, just download it and give it a shot, what’s to lose? If it doesn’t work, on top of Cygwin I can recommend [Knoppix](http://knoppix.org). ---
**Author:** ![leenmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/5 "2004-01-17T21:44:34Z")
If you are doing software development, and the tools are included on the livecd (say you are programming in C), then you should be able. Of course, you will need someplace to write your files. So, if you are running the live cd on a system that normally boots Windows XP, then the NTFS file systems may be a sticking point. On the livecd, there will not be a way to write to the file systems on the different partitions. Now, you can get around that by creating a partition that is a) FAT-whatever or b) unused and can be formatted something Linux friendly such as ext2 or ext3. But when you ask if you can do software development using a livecd, the answer depends on what you mean by software development. Shell scripts - Certainly Graphical user interfaces using something like Glade or Tcl/TK - If the tools are on the cd. They might have been left off to conserve space/minimize size. Programs to be compiled with gcc - Probably. If the gcc compiler is there (which is very likely) and the header files are included (which you would need to check). See? It depends. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mandrakemove-and-programming/224755/6 "2004-01-18T15:23:06Z")
Ok, I’ll just give it a try. Thanks for the info.