I'd like to run Linux in a virtual machine on Windows 7 SP1 for the immediate goal of safe browsing. There are at least three aspects to it:
- Compatibility. The whole Windows-VM-Linux harness should be reasonably stable and not crash overmuch.
- Security. The VM should act as a security boundary not letting either a Windows virus get to my banking data in the Linux browser or a browser exploit to get to my Windows filesystem.
- Minimum hassle. It would be great to have the Linux distro update itself the way modern Windows does, at least in regards to security patches.
On the other hand, performance is not that important. Right now I'm thinking about VirtualBox and Fedora Workstation. Any better ideas?