For work (student researcher at university), I am used to developing software using tools on Windows (e.g., using CMake with Visual Studio) and I am in the beginning stages of trying to figure how to get things working on linux. However, the only way I currently know how to access the linux machine is through a remote ssh session or separate ftp session (and I do not have access to an administrative account). I am in the process of reading a book by Mark Sobell to help me become more comfortable with the command line; however, I still need some practical tips on how to best do everything remotely (and without having administrative access). More specifically, I am currently have the following questions (but if someone has some more general advice as well that would be most welcome):

1. Is there a good way to install software just for me (I'm assuming I will need to do something like this since I don't have administrative rights)? Would I be limited to only using software that you can compile from source (or could I somehow install packages as well)? (My current guess is that I could just compile things and leave them in my home directory, but I am a little worried about the space it would consume.)

2. Is there a way to tell (without being the administrator) if things are set up on the linux machine so that I could use an X-session to remotely use some GUI-based software (so far I haven't had luck with this using WinaXe, but I'm not sure how to tell if things are even enabled for this). (If I could have access to some GUI-based tools I think it might help my transition.)

3. Is there an easy way to access local files on my Windows machine from a remote ssh session (without having to open up a separate window to ftp the files over first)? I would really like to be able to browse the web or whatever using windows and then download those files to the linux machine directly. (I've heard of Samba, but I'm not sure if that is set up on the linux machines because of security reasons.)

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.