diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0e42a79216557875ed1e0333ed91fdd9efc356e6..fa870e9b8a9ae2db28b21a6478cc257ccbe979e8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,15 +24,23 @@ This application was created by Eike Cochu for his master's degree thesis in com
 The following steps were reproduced in that order on a fully updated Ubuntu 15.10 virtual system to create a fully operational development environment for the Vipra projects. These steps are only required for project development. If you want to create a virtual machine for development, create a hard drive with at least 10 GB in size. 
 
 1. Install **required libraries and tools**
+    * Java 8
+    * MongoDB: the database
+    * git: to clone the project repository.
+    * maven3: to install project dependencies
+    * Tomcat 8: a JavaEE application server
+    * gsl, gflags: for building dtm (see below)
     ```bash
     sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk mongodb git maven tomcat8 libgsl0-dev
     ```
     
-    install a recent version of node (the official repositories contain old versions)
+    install a recent version of **nodejs** (the official repositories contain old versions)
     ```bash
     curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | sudo -E bash -
     sudo apt-get install nodejs
-    sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/nodebower inst
+    # gulp needs a node executable, ubuntu only creates a nodejs executable
+    sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node
+    bower inst
     ```
     
     if watchman will be used (see below) additional packages are required for building watchman from source
@@ -68,7 +76,7 @@ The following steps were reproduced in that order on a fully updated Ubuntu 15.1
     ./build.sh
     ```
 
-6. Build dtm binaries. The repository was added to the vipra project because the original repository is/was hosted on [Google Code](https://code.google.com/archive/p/princeton-statistical-learning/downloads). Refer to dtm_release/README if problems during the build arise.
+6. Build **dtm binaries**. The repository was added to the vipra project because the original repository is/was hosted on [Google Code](https://code.google.com/archive/p/princeton-statistical-learning/downloads). Refer to dtm_release/README if problems during the build arise.
     ```bash
     cd dtm_release
     make