You can virtualize linux in linux with no trouble at all (even with VirtualBox if you like). As I read it, the suggestion wasn't that you replace your virtualized Linux with physical hardware, it was that you replace your Macbook with a system that does what you need.
As I read it, the suggestion wasn't that you replace your virtualized Linux with physical hardware, it was that you replace your Macbook with a system that does what you need.
That was the question I was attempting to answer - I have obviously failed :-) Let me try again.
A Macbook + virtualised environment does exactly what I need.
I happen to prefer Apple HW and the OS X GUI. My partner prefers Ubuntu. We both run dev environment in a VM because automating the creation and deployment on a virtualised environment brings a whole bunch of advantages that running it on your base machine does not.
Virtualisation of the dev environment is a good thing regardless of what that virtual environment is running on.
For example:
* We can trivially run the current dev branch on multiple versions of the OS by just building on top of a different vagrant box
* It has basically killed deployment issues stone cold dead for us - since we're always deploying. Problems get found as soon as you f\\k up. You can't forget dependencies. You don't get tempted to make a quick tweak to a config file that you then forget about it. And so on.
* You get your automated deployment code "for free" since you're developing it as you go rather than thinking "okay - how do we deploy this".
* It makes experimenting with different infrastructure / dependencies / versions very, very cheap and simple
* Makes developing in odd/remote locations really simple. All I need is an internet connection, virtual box, our repo and vagrant and I can get a dev environment up and running.
* We each get to have the OS that we like for coding on, without all that tedious "it works on my machine" faffing.
