[sanderjd]

Maybe we're both rare, but I think Windows 7 and Windows 10 are both really nice, as is the Edge browser. I've been considering switching from OSX. It seems like it should be relatively convenient with tools like Vagrant to develop on Windows but run, test, and deploy on Linux. But I haven't tested this hypothesis yet.

[tracker1]

As long as you get Windows 10 Pro, you get Hyper-V... I have an always-on linux VM that I SSH a few terminals to and map a drive via SAMBA on the VM to my desktop, so I can edit in a windows GUI, but interact in Linux... it works pretty well, and tbh is usually easier than the odd edge case with windows, unless you're a C/C++ guy.

[sanderjd]

This sounds really cool. I don't know much about Hyper-V and SAMBA – any good links to get me started?

[tracker1]

Hyper-V is just a VM environment that comes with some versions of windows... It's not really too much different than VMWare, Parallels or VirtualBox... It does have an option to start in the background on machine start on the desktop version.

So I installed Ubuntu Server (latest) in a Virtual Machine via Hyper-V... set it to auto-boot.. setup OpenSSH, setup Samba ... I kind of just muddled through it, to be honest.. after that, I setup Docker, build-essentials and nvm, which covered my needs there.

On the windows side, I use Clover as an explorer replacement (file explorer, not the desktop), and use ConEmu for tabbed shell interfaces. It works pretty well for me. I use GUI stuff in windows, and the linux side via SSH.

[sanderjd]

Thanks, this is helpful. I'm a seasoned muddler myself, so I'm sure I can figure it out.