Newbie - day trading softwares

Hello all,
I am a newbie and hope my questions aren't already asked a million times. I want to know about trading softwares and have some specific questions, .

a) I want to get into day trading. But just want to do some simulations for a couple of months. Could you please suggest any cheap software for that. Is there anything totally free?
b) Could you tell me the difference between trading platform and day trading software?
c) Are all trading platforms desktop based or are there some which are completely online?. Can you give your favourites in either of these cases? - (this is important for me because I am a techie and am very curious)

Thanks

re: c) I have seen:
(i) online - eg old style web, or embedded flash, and of course phone based apps
(ii) desktop/windows app
(iii) citrix
(iv) various apis

I would prefer to be using an api or desktop app, but not having used Citrix before, I was impressed with its speed/responsiveness (similarly impressed with GotoMyPC)

check out prorealtime.com it's a web based charting pack with a simulator included. it's not free mind you...but you could just look at taking out a 3 month subscription with a data feed to Eurex or emini CME - would certainly help you get a feel for things for a couple of hundred bucks..

Just saying you want to get into day trading doesn't say anything about your strategy or what tools (analytics, charts, custom calcs, etc) you require.

I'm not a day trader, I'm not certain what is unique about day trading with respect to tools and platforms except easy order entry and competent execution. Those that are day traders, tune me up if necessary.

I opened an an account that remained unfunded for five months. I was able to back test and paper trade until I was satisfied that I had the tools and execution required for my strategy. They had both a browser-based interface and a desktop platform. And the desktop platform allowed live connection to Excell so I could add my own quick calcs.