Develop in a Virtual Machine

After much time spent struggling with Mac OS's odd version of Unix, I've come to really appreciate developing in Ubuntu Server inside of a Virtual Machine.

You should too. It will save you time. Here's why:

(And if you scroll down, you'll see a link to tell you how!)

Increase your server-foo quickly. Tasks which MAMP automated for you become first-hand re-usable knowledge. The result: You can easily find your around most web servers, and get a feel for why errors or issues might arise. This has saved me more time than I am willing to count.
Your OS stays clean. I have installed zero web-server apps onto my Macbook Air. It's still pristine. No apache, no mysql. No Xcode. No fear of an OS upgrade breaking Git. No wasted time ** fixing Mac OS oddities. No **time wasted on Brew.
Your development environment is your production environment. I use Ubuntu Server for development. (I like its package manager. I like its pre-configurations. I like easy.) If I can, I use Ubuntu Server for my production environment. I run into most issues ahead of time in my virtual machine so I can have a smooth project launch.
Projects can be separate. For larger projects, I create a VM just for that one project. This lets me test out systems I might otherwise be hesitant to install (Redis, Memcache, Sphinx search, just to name a few things I don't want in my main server instance). That way I have configurations setup ahead of time, and have worked out any kinks in my application.
VM's are lightweight. I run my Ubuntu Server VM off of an external harddrive with no slow-down. I often run multiple VM's at once on my puny Macbook Air. No problem.
They can fail without stressing you out. You can copy your VM at any point. You can rebuid your VM at any point. If you keep your code in a cope repo, you can waste little time setting another server. Note: I've never had a VM server crash.
You can develop on your favorite OS. Some of you still use Windows. A VM levels the playing field. Use your favorite or most efficient development practices while still being able to do anything *nix-y you need to.

In the 6 months since I've begun developing on a VM, I've gone from little server knowledge to setting up secure, load-balanced, backed-up and replicated server architectures.

Tip: Record every new command or process you learn. Including installing/setting up a server, installing a LAMP server, and any tool that gives you a hard time, or configuration you want to remember.

Tip: Create a server virtual machine, and then copy and paste that VM for all your other VM's. You can create a server onces and re-use it to your hearts content whenever you want.

How? Yes, the important part! Here's how to develop in a virtual machine with Ubuntu Server.