[Nutch-dev] What is suitable environment?

[KAAS INFOTECH]

Hi All,
  I am new to nutch. I have downloaded latest nutch-0.7.1. I have Microsoft
window install on my PC with Java home Set. I came to know that cgywin is
require to run nutch? Why Cannot I run nutch from windows? If so Do I need
to change to Linux(any flavor of unix) ?
 How can we create test environment for nutch and start working on it?
 Plz guide soon As I require to start work on nutch project. Any reply from
your side is highly appreciated ? Thanx in advance