VirtualBox w/ any Linux distro + Terminator vs PromptPal

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.

You can have PromptPal open automatically with the same tabs as used in the most recent session, starting in the same directories.

PromptPal supports several shells (including Powershell) and it allows you to choose which shell to run through the preferences.

You can mark most used commands in PromptPal as favourites.