VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator vs Alacritty

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.

Whether you prefer zsh, bash, or fish, Linux will support it.

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

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.

Written in Rust with a philosophy focusing on speed and simplicity, Alacritty is one of the fastest terminal emulators out there.

Alacritty looks very slick on Linux, especially with GNOME or i3.

The configuration file is very well made and easy to use. You can fine tune your preferences to perfection in a matter of minutes.

Alacritty can be configured to adjust line spacing (height), letter spacing (width), and individual character horizontal/vertical positions.

It's simple and fast like xterm or urxvt but with truecolor support which is a big plus if you use a terminal based code editor. Basically Alacritty has all the features you need and nothing you don't (if you're using tmux for multiplexing).