OS for software development vm

[House]

Hey lads
I want to create a virtual machine (VMware) containing all the tools I use for some software development.
This is in no way a professional thing. Its just a hobby.

All those IDEs, tools, compiler clutter my system that is why I have decided to go with such solution.

Languages: C#, Python and PHP.

I can decide on what OS should I go with?
Windows 7 or 8.1.
Linux with "Mono Develop" can also be an option but,

programs that I make are usually a console applications for Windows.

 

Your tips and recommendations are welcome?

[Muchoz]

I currently have my desktop dual booted with Arch Linux and Windows 7 for gaming. I'm setting the Arch installation up mostly, but am gonna make it my primary development environment and I'll try to switch from OSX which I currently use for backend web development and Android development. I wouldn't really recommend using Arch Linux if you're not familiar with Linux because Arch is known for being barebones. The Arch Linux is amazing, but I would recommend getting either some Debian distro or even try a hackintosh if you want. The Windows commandline is horrible for any cli software and installing development stuff is a pain in the ass.

 

If you want to keep it in a VM, try your hand at Xubuntu: Ubuntu, but stripped down. But you can try development just fine in Windows, setting everything up is just a pain and most stuff don't support Windows without a 3rd party.

[Satlen]

Windows should be fine for those things you mentioned. I would recommend 7 because it has the best performance from the others from my results.