Working from home
Depending on what operating system you use, you will need to have one or two pieces of software on that machine to properly connect to and work with the UNIX systems.
Checking Machines
Want to see which machines are working? Try Dr. G's new script: Ping Results - this web page should be updated about every 30 minutes.
Mac Users
Mac users will need X11 or XQuartz. X11 is generally installed with OS 10.5 through 10.7; 10.4 users will need to install it. 10.6 and above users will want to install XQuartz. Information on each is at the X11 page.
Windows Users
Starting with the Fall 2014 semester, Windows users should use MobaXterm to connect. This program contains both the terminal program and the X-Windows protocol in one free package. Note that at present Duke's public machines most likely do not have MobaXterm installed -- people wishing to use Duke's public machines to do work on Linux systems are thus advised to log in using the Mac boot and run X11 as noted above.
All Cases
In all cases, you do not need to install anything else. emacs, LaTeX, evince, and everything else you need will be on the UNIX systems - you will not have them on your own machines.