What's the best way to run a Linux virtual server in Windows 7?

Question

I need a virtual server for web development, it'll host Apache+Postgres+Ruby+something else.

1. What's the most effective software to run such a server? (ie with least virtualization overhead)

2. Is there a way to run Linux as as service?

I use VirtualBox at the moment, but it's inconvenient in some ways, such as it needs an emulator window open which also captures keyboard input when alttabbed into.

(Also, coLinux hangs at boot on my machine, so it's probably not an option)

Answer 1

There is a very convenient utility that hides VirtualBox from the foreground completely: vboxctrl. With vboxctrl you can run a Linux server on your Windows machine, make it automatically go to sleep when Windows shuts down or hibernates; then use any SSH client to log in to the server. Or you can use Xming to open graphical windows from the Linux server; I've worked quite a lot of time in GVim open through Xming.

If anyone needs more details, leave a comment, I may write an article about this.

Answer 2

I've never found VMware to be much of a performance hog unless running 3+ virtual machines.

The latest free server version (VMware Server 2) runs as a service IIRC, so you can set up your dev server to start up and shut down when your PC does, and you can either log on to the VM's console through the web interface, or create a shortcut on your desktop so it's fairly non-obtrusive.

Answer 3

Check out the features of VMWare Server. It's free, you just have to register.