Setting up PC and laptop for development in .NET

[VinylxScratches]

This is kind of a weird thing to post but I'm wondering what you guys would do.

I like development in .NET, the issue is, I also enjoy using Macs. (avoids shoe being thrown)

Currently I have a Macbook and I bought a Mac Mini that I plan on using as a server. I'm a bit mad that I shotgunned and bought the Mac Mini a day before seeing the deal on the Lenovo SL500 that was posted in the Hot Deals thread. I don't have a job so I can't just buy things on the spot.

The original plan was to setup the Mac Mini as a server/development box. I didn't want a full tower PC because they eat so much power.

I was going to run Windows XP Pro natively + Visual Studio, along with Server 2008 and 2003 as web server/active directory. I also wanted to run NetBSD or FreeBSD as a MySQL server on it.

The Mac Mini specs are 1.83 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 80 GB hard drive, and 4 gigs of ram (3.3 max).

I also have a Macbook, It's the same as the Mac Mini but has a 200 GB hard drive.

Do you guys have any other ideas? Another one I wanted to use is setup Ubuntu or a lighter Linux variant on the Mac Mini, and then have Windows XP, 2003, and 2008 in a VM but that might be too much?

I have so much Microsoft software that I'm not utilizing. I have 2x 2003, 2x 2008, 2x Windows XP Pro, and 2x Vista Business.

 

[SilentZero]

I do some .NET development on my macbook pro using VMWare Fusion and XP Pro with VS, SQL Server, etc set up in the VM.

 

[imported_Dhaval00]

I just build VMware images and carry them around on a portable hard drive. Whenever the need arises, I simply plug in the hard drive and load the image. In my case, I have a 7200 RPM HD which slows down over USB, but I hardly notice the difference. Of course, I don't do any performance testing on these images.

You may want to get a license if you want to maintain snapshots, otherwise download something like VMware ESXi which natively runs on 64-bit OSs.