Recommended VM Software and Version of Linux

[Rickster]

I use VMware Workstation which is not free. Forgot about VMware Player whuch is free.

When I said free I meant "free".

 

[ponder]

Umm, gui - cli a bit too spartan

I'm a long time Manjaro Openbox user which only has a Window Manager, no Desktop Environment. I recently switched over to Manjaro PekWM environment which is even lighter faster. Both are light weight and way less bloated than any gnome, kde, xfce etc desktop.
Manjaro is based on Arch linux which I have a lot of love for.

Alternatively if you want something Debian based look at Crunchbang.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Elementary?

How about Lubuntu?

 

[TheRoDent]

virt-manager

 

[SBSP]

Slax is a very light desktop.

http://www.slax.org/en/download.php

 

[me_]

Windows 8.1 includes Hyper-V:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-za/windows-8/hyper-v-run-virtual-machines

As far as distro, I would recommend Mint.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Umm, gui - cli a bit too spartan

If you are using a GUI you aren't learning anything.

Point and click on one OS is the same on another. Mouse works the same too. So does the keyboard.

 

[soliton]

I recommend Virtualbox if your i7 machine if is your primary desktop.

I run KVM on my HP N54L with only power + Ethernet cable connected.