Building Unix/Linux programming environment for a Windows developer

A lightweight solution could be cygwin, which would not require a VM or dual boot. It has gcc, emacs, and other dev tools, but not big IDE's like eclipse and netbeans.

"For remote desktop access, there's a great product called NoMachine NX. It's free for most uses I believe, if you don't fall under the free category, I heard Google was making an open source version. The server exists for Linux & Solaris (not Windows, as it uses a tweaked version of the native X protocol), but the client is available for Windows as well. I've tried Windows' Remote Desktop and VNC, and NX performed better than both.

As for C++ development, I use OpenSUSE & KDevelop, but C++ is not my primary development language, so better listen to others about this :)"

"The xrdp server for linux allows you to use mstsc.exe /v:LinuxMachine to access your Linux machine from windows.

On fedora:
yum install xrdp
chkconfig xrdp on
service xrdp start

If using VirtualBox, then it can activate port 3389 for you with a checkbox, so that is even easier.

yum groupinstall ""Development Tools"" //Installs a whole bunch of tools quickly and easily. But wait! There are even more development tools waiting in the repositories.

i can't recommend xming because it seems to have been abandoned and seemed to require you to run as an administrator on windows. One of the biggest advantages of Linux is that programmers do not have run as administrator. It has always been that way."