During a Software Design class in high school our teacher posed the question “Why do splash screens exist?” The usual answers were provided: to display copyright information, instil the brand, show confirmation that the program was successfully executed (Response time in man-computer conversational transactions), etc. Afterwards, our teacher correctly raised the notion that they exist [...]

For those of us burdened with Windows at work I highly suggest trying Cygwin to provide a *nix environment. The combination of the POSIX compatibility layer and GNU tools certainly makes my life easier.
Add the impressively lightweight MinTTY terminal emulator, breathe a sigh of relief and get some work done.