When comparing FireCMD vs VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator, the Slant community recommends FireCMD for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” FireCMD is ranked 21st while VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator is ranked 31st. The most important reason people chose FireCMD is:
FireCMD supports command auto-completion. Once you start typing a command, you can press the `tab` key to auto-complete it.
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Pros
Pro Sophisticated auto-completion
FireCMD supports command auto-completion. Once you start typing a command, you can press the tab
key to auto-complete it.
Pro Recursive and persistent aliases
FireCMD allows users to create up to 500 aliases.
Pro HTML and CSS support makes for greater usability
HTML is a very flexible and user-friendly language for writing web pages, while CSS allows for the content of a HTML document to be separated from the style and layout of that document.
Pro A free trial is available
A free trial of FireCMD is available for users to try out.
Pro Runs Pre-configured virtual machines
Allows you to run your virtual machines pre-configured by you or others.
Virtual Box versions for:
-- Windows 7/8/10
-- All Linux installations
-- MAC OS x
-- Solaris 10/11
Virtual OSs include:
-- Oracle Linux 5/6/7.x (RHEL clones)
-- Solaris10/11
-- Occassionally a Windows Beta
Oracle itself provides many free VMs, pre-configured with various software stacks and hands-on lab materials for learning, geared toward. These have helped me earn three of my Oracle certifications:
-- Oracle Database development
-- Oracle DBA
-- MySQL development
-- Java Standard/Enterprise development
-- Big data
-- Webcenter portal & others
Pre-installed software in or more of the various stacks includes:
-- Oracle Database 11/12
-- JDK/Eclipse
-- Enterprise Mgr
-- MySQL
-- WebLogic
-- Cloudera, etc.

Pro Supports modern shells
Whether you prefer zsh, bash, or fish, Linux will support it.

Pro Isolated from Windows
VirtualBox provides almost total isolation from Windows running underneath it, removing a lot of security issues.

Pro Free / Libre Software
While the OS underneath it is proprietary and does spy on you or actively violate your freedom, so to speak, you can still have a little piece of mind knowing that VirtualBox (your Linux distro and shell of choice) as well as Terminator are all FOSS.
Cons
Con Not free
Although there's a free trial available, FireCDM is not free and costs $29.
Con Install a whole operating system for one program
You would need to install the entire Linux distribution just for one single program.

Con Slightly slower than just running Linux
The Windows + VirtualBox layer introduces some overhead that wouldn't be present if Linux were installed directly on the machine.
