Kevin van Zonneveld has passed along a note about one of his latest posts to his blog, this overview of how virtualization on the desktop can help you make stronger, improved code.

If you have to wait endlessly for on SVN commits, uploads or compile steps, you will simply produce less inventive code. [...] If there's one thing I've really learned, it's invest in a good testing environment.

Another trick to improve the speed & quality of development, is to virtualize your production platform to your local workstation. The fake-production server (virtual machine) will mount your code directory directly as it's webroot, and so it can serve your IDE-work instantly.

He uses the VirtualBox software to create the virtual environment (Ubuntu on Ubuntu in this case) and gives the complete steps to setting it all up:

• Download Operating System for Virtual Machine
• Creating/Configuring a new Virtual Machine
• Installing the OS
• Upgrade/Updating to the most recent software versions
• Making it a server
• Testing the Environment