Ask Slashdot: Configuring Development Environment On a Shared Workstation? 158
First time accepted submitter xyourfacekillerx writes "After a long hiatus of developing (ASP.NET), I decided to pick it up again. I need to learn .NET and SQL for my new job (GIS tech using ESRI software). Down the road they need a PHP website, tons of automation tasks, some serious data consolidation, they want mobile apps in theory. This is not my job description, but I'm sure I can do it. Long story short, I need to setup a development environment on my home desktop, so I can do all this in my spare time. Trouble is, I share the machine (Win 8.1, 2.7 dual core pentium something or other, with virtualization support.) I want to avoid affecting the other users profiles. I currently use my profile for music production (Reason) and photography (Photoshop, et al) so it's already resource intensive with RAM, CPU and VMM. I'll be needing to install all of your basic Microsoft developer suites, IIS, SQl Server, ANdroid SDK, Java SDK, device emulators, etc. etc. Plus AMP and finally GIS software. There will obviously be a lot of services running, long build times, and so on. To wit, I wouldn't be able to use my desktop for my other purposes like the music editing. So I need some advice. Would it help to set up all these tools under a different account on the same Win 8.1 install? Or should I virtualize my development environment (and how?), and run the virtual machine side by side? Or should I add a HDD or secondary partition and boot to that when I intend to develop? I am poor ATM, but is there a cheap very mini PC I can place next to my desktop and run all my development software off that, remote desktop into it? I've done a lot of googling the last week and haven't turned up anything, so I turn to Slashdot. Please help me get organized so I can start coding again."
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Use IIS Express, SQL Server LocalDB, Visual St (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree with this. Hyper-V on windows 8.1 is the way to go for dev environment if you need desktop class OS. If you can get a dev license for Windows Server 2008 or 2012, it will be fine also and help you later on in the configuration management as you approach production level code.
Either way you should absolutely virtualize and learn how to use Fixed Differencing VMs (base workstation host + base virtual machine + differenced VM). Once you get a baseline virtual machine set up, you make it read-only and have all future modifications go to the differenced VM. This way if you ever need to start over or spin up a duplicate environment using different configuration, you can start a new differenced image or just delete the existing diff image.