To help students get set up with an environment similar to that used for the textbook, we have built a VirtualBox disk image. VirtualBox is an open source virtual machine platform originally built be Sun Microsystems and now under Oracle. It allows you to run one operating system in a window under another. Many of the tasks in this book are a bit easier to do under a command-line interface supporting Unix-like commands (this includes Linux and OS X). This disk image will let you get that type of environment under Windows. It can also be used under Mac or Linux if you want to keep these tools separate from your normal install or do not want to download and install the various tools on your own.
To use this, first go to https://www.virtualbox.org/ and download VirtualBox for your platform. After you have done that, download the disk image. Note that this is a 4GB file so the download will take a while. Once you have both of those files, install VirtualBox and tell it you want to make a new virtual machine. You should set the machine up for Linux and give it at least 2GB of RAM. At the point where you specify a disk, browse to the LinuxMint.dvi file that you downloaded and select that. You can play with other settings if you want, but this is all it should take to get up and running. When you start it, you will automatically be logged into an account for the user student. The password for that account is "Scala".
Build Your Own
If you run into problems with the download, you can always build your own virtual disk with Linux and then install the software yourself.