When comparing VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator vs Take Command, the Slant community recommends Take Command for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” Take Command is ranked 25th while VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator is ranked 31st. The most important reason people chose Take Command is:
Regular expression pattern enabled tools for text filtering, searching, substitution, and conversion.
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Pros
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.
Pro Text processing tools
Regular expression pattern enabled tools for text filtering, searching, substitution, and conversion.
Pro Powerfull scripting language
Powerfull scripting language with a lot of commands and predefined variables.
Pro File compression tools
File compression tools, e.g. bz2, gz, tar, 7zip and zip.
Pro FTP Command Line Client
Command line driven FTP client.
Pro Batch Debugger
It has a GUI Debugger for Batch files as well the own scripting language (BTM).
Cons
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.