A Development Machine in VirtualBox - (Debian-min vs ArchLinux vs recommend-one).

Question

I have few years of exp on linux, mainly ubuntu (dual-boot). Now i am shifting to windows, and installing linux in VirtualBox (PUEL). I am looking for a light-weight distro for development machine setup. Thought of using debian-unstable-minimum, and installing build-essentials, openbox(or a little more feature light-WM, ps recommend), ssh-server, ethereal, iptables, nmap(maybe), vim, python3. That is all what i can think of now mainly.

Options I can think of --

• Debian-unstable minimum, and then using apt-get to do the rest. Is there also recommended version of ubuntu-lite. I read Ulite is not good, some-others are also not that good.
• ArchLinux, reading a great deal about it. Wikipedia says it is mainly a binary-based distro, but everywhere on net/community only talk about its source-based approach. If it is binary I think I can have a quick setup. (For guest-OS-ArchLinux guys in VBox ) is your guest-additions working fine in archLinux.
• FreeBSD 8, is it possible for minimum install. And recommended.
• Recommendations for other i686 optimized linux, if any, or lets say i386 is also fine, as will only use it for coding.

For system admins -
I would like to know if ArchLinux keeps the potential to penetrate companies for production systems, and replace redhat/debian/bsd in servers for hosting apps/portals.

Addition: Just a thought- is there any distro which helps you to be a better programmer/developer/analyst, in terms of the way things should be done. I dont know if I am over-generalizing it :).

Answer 1

some-others Checked crunchbang? If you are not particular about needing the power of apt-get, you can also check-out zenWalk or Vector.

Answer 2

My work machine is a 3Ghz 4G Windows 7 box, on which I am running a 1G Debian VM under VirtualBox, it is a bit slower when accessing the HD but it is perfectly usable. I installed off the usual ISO image, and used apt-get to get the rest. Basically, I don't think on even semi-modern hardware you will need to go for a cut-down install to get a good user experience, (unless you particularly want to) to run just one VM. It runs the full GNOME desktop, Emacs, half a dozen terminals, Iceweasel web browser and the OCaml and Haskell compilers just fine. Make sure you install the VirtualBox extensions, they make a big difference to the interactive experience.

FWIW I have never gotten FreeBSD to work properly under VirtualBox, perhaps if you need that you would be better off with VMware, which does.