>In about 4 months I may have the opportunity to work on a Unix
>platform.
>
>Does Microsoft have any of its development tools available on
>a Unix/Linux platform?
>
ROFL! No, the Visual Studio products do not exist for Linux, lathough there may be cometing products of a similar scope available to you. At this point in time (and AFAICS, for the immediate future) the Visual Studio products are Windows platform specific, and MS has no desire to support the platform.