virtual-machine

Let me just put this right out there; Virtual Machines are awesome, but
not
for me in this use case.

For the last 6 or so months I have been developing in separate
environments.
Using VMware Fusion for Mac OSX has enabled me to create virtual
computers that
facilitate complete separation between my main machine and dev
environments.
I will explain what I did followed by why and how it worked out.

The creation of an OSX Mountain Lion VM is painless. After creation I
went in
and removed a bunch of non-necessary apps. After all, I was mainly
interested in
using the VM to develop, not manage pictures or play with GarageBand.
Removing
the unnecessary apps made the VM footprint a lot smaller, which was
another nice
side effect.

I keep most of my important configurations in a version control system
called
git. I store these repositories at Github, which makes retrieving and
subsequently installing them super easy. Once the machine was
provisioned with
my configurations, I used my laptop script to install the apps and
packages I
use for developing and managing.

Up to this point I have a few hours invested and I figure I can make a
copy of
VM for future use. Lets call it the base VM. From here I can experiment
with
new packages, modules and code. I install items without regard for my
system as
I can simply roll back the changes or start anew. Life is good...

The problem I have experienced with this setup is managing what is
installed,
where it is installed and how to keep track of it all. This gets
really
complicated when I have 4 or 5 VM's that are purpose built for
different
programming languages and/or tools. I often need to modify my path or
another
config file, for example, in each VM. This is a managerial nightmare as
I have
4 or 5 different dotfile configurations to stay on top of. Yuck.

What I've found is that I am unable to really stay on top of each VM and
my main
machine when I really just want to focus on getting something done.
Conversely,
I can't get anything done when I spend all my time making sure all of
the repos
are up to date. Houston we have a problem.

My hat is off to those of you with more than one computer and also
manage to
keep everything sane. I have toyed around with the idea of one main
computer and
another traveling computer or something like that. This experiment has
taught me
that I am a one computer man. I guess my particular OCD dictates that I
keep my
config files up to date and if my computer blows up, I can simply move
to another...
but not more than one at a time.