Traditionally, with my initial unboxingings, I'd split up the bard drive and install the most compatible Linux distro for dual-boot use, but it sounds like the cool kids are using VM configurations instead. I'm well-versed in dual-boot setups clear back to early versions of Red Hat and SuSE (more recently, K/ubuntu) but am unfamiliar with VM products and configurations.

For example, do VM users run VM under Windows or under Linux? If the latter, what distros? Any compatibility issues to watch for in advance? Friendliness to encryption? etc.

Here are some past HN threads and submitted resources I HAVE found thus far:

https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/create-an-awesome-linux-development-environment-in-windows-with-vmware

https://medium.com/@valeryan/experimenting-with-windows-subsystem-for-linux-and-web-development-85180b90382f Windows Subsystem for Linux and Web Development (Laravel)

http://www.productchart.com/ (useful tool but limited population of makes/models)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13555310 Linux performance tips for laptops

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13088755 developing on a Linux VM on Windows

Thanks for any tips.