FYI You can easily have a hybrid development environment. One box (or virtual machine) runs Linux with all the stuff you need. The computer in front of you runs

FYI You can easily have a hybrid development environment. One box (or virtual machine) runs Linux with all the stuff you need. The computer in front of you runs Windows or Mac OS and you ssh to the other box. Especially useful if your production environment is Linux. You can have the Linux box match your production environment. I personally prefer this setup, as it allows me to use Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and Microsoft (Office) and a few other favorites not found on Linux.