diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f89c67a24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+RetroShare
+==============================
+RetroShare is a decentralized, private and secure commmunication and sharing platform. RetroShare provides filesharing, chat, messages, forums and channels. 
+
+Compilation on Linux
+----------------------------
+
+1. Install package dependencies:
+   * Debian/Ubuntu
+   ```bash
+   sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev libupnp-dev qt4-dev-tools \
+       libqt4-dev libssl-dev libxss-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libbz2-dev \
+       libqt4-opengl-dev libqtmultimediakit1 qtmobility-dev \
+       libspeex-dev libspeexdsp-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \
+       libopencv-dev tcl8.5 libmicrohttpd-dev
+   ```
+   * openSUSE
+   ```bash
+   sudo zypper install gcc-c++ libqt4-devel libgnome-keyring-devel \
+       glib2-devel speex-devel libssh-devel protobuf-devel libcurl-devel \
+       libxml2-devel libxslt-devel sqlcipher-devel libmicrohttpd-devel \
+       opencv-devel speexdsp-devel libupnp-devel
+   ```
+   * Arch Linux
+   ```bash
+   pacman -S base-devel libgnome-keyring libmicrohttpd libupnp libxslt \
+       libxss opencv qt4 speex sqlcipher
+   ```
+
+2. Checkout the source code
+   ```bash
+   mkdir ~/retroshare
+   cd ~/retroshare 
+   git clone https://github.com/RetroShare/RetroShare.git trunk
+   ```
+
+3. Compile
+   ```bash
+   cd trunk
+   qmake CONFIG=debug
+   make
+   ```
+
+   The executables produced will be:
+
+         trunk/retroshare-gui/src/RetroShare
+         trunk/retroshare-nogui/src/retroshare-nogui
+
+If libsqlcipher is not available as a package
+---------------------------------------------
+
+You need to place sqlcipher so that the hierarchy is:
+
+      retroshare
+          |
+          +--- trunk
+          |
+          +--- lib
+                |
+                +---- sqlcipher
+```bash
+mkdir lib
+cd lib
+git clone git://github.com/sqlcipher/sqlcipher.git
+cd sqlcipher
+./configure --enable-tempstore=yes CFLAGS="-DSQLITE_HAS_CODEC" LDFLAGS="-lcrypto"
+make
+cd ..
+```
+
+Using retroshare-nogui & webUI
+------------------------------
+
+The webUI needs to be enabled as a parameter option in retroshare-nogui:
+
+```bash
+./retroshare-nogui --webinterface 9090 --docroot /usr/share/RetroShare06/webui/
+```
+
+The webUI is only accessible on localhost:9090 (unless you canged that
+option in the GUI). It is advised to keep it that way so that your RS
+cannot be controlled using an untrusted connection.
+
+To access your web UI from a distance, just open a SSH tunnel on it:
+
+```bash
+distant_machine:~/ >  ssh rs_host -L 9090:localhost:9090 -N
+```
+
+"rs_host" is the machine running retroshare-nogui. Then on the distant machine, access your webUI on 
+
+
+      http://localhost:9090
+
+That also works with a retroshare GUI of course.
diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 02475b120..000000000
--- a/README.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,71 +0,0 @@
-Compilation on Ubuntu/Debian
-============================
-
-1 - install package dependencies:
-
-   # sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev libupnp-dev qt4-dev-tools \
-      qt4-dev-tools libqt4-dev libssl-dev libxss-dev libgnome-keyring-dev libbz2-dev \
-      libqt4-opengl-dev libqtmultimediakit1 qtmobility-dev \
-      libspeex-dev libspeexdsp-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \
-      libopencv-dev, tcl8.5, libmicrohttpd-dev
-
-2 - checkout the source code
-
-   # mkdir ~/retroshare
-   # cd ~/retroshare 
-   # git clone https://github.com/RetroShare/RetroShare.git trunk
-
-3 - compile
-
-   # cd trunk
-   # qmake CONFIG=debug
-   # make
-
-   => the executables produced will be 
-
-         trunk/retroshare-gui/src/Retroshare
-         trunk/retroshare-nogui/src/retroshare-nogui
-
-If libsqlcipher is not available as a package:
-=============================================
-
-   You need to place sqlcipher so that the hierarchy is:
-
-      retroshare
-          |
-          +--- trunk
-          |
-          +--- lib
-                |
-                +---- sqlcipher
-
-   # mkdir lib
-   # cd lib
-   # git clone git://github.com/sqlcipher/sqlcipher.git
-   # cd sqlcipher
-   # ./configure --enable-tempstore=yes CFLAGS="-DSQLITE_HAS_CODEC" LDFLAGS="-lcrypto"
-   # make
-   # cd ..
-
-Using retroshare-nogui & webUI
-==============================
-
-   The webUI needs to be enabled as a parameter option in retroshare-nogui:
-
-      ./retroshare-nogui --webinterface 9090 --docroot /usr/share/RetroShare06/webui/
-
-   The webUI is only accessible on localhost:9090 (unless you canged that
-   option in the GUI). It is advised to keep it that way so that your RS
-   cannot be controlled using an untrusted connection.
-
-   To access your web UI from a distance, just open a SSH tunnel on it:
-
-      distant_machine:~/ >  ssh rs_host -L 9090:localhost:9090 -N
-
-   "rs_host" is the machine running retroshare-nogui. Then on the distant machine, access your webUI on 
-
-      http://localhost:9090
-
-   That also works with a retroshare GUI of course.
-
-