ah so technically its not a tool (i mean software wise) related issue... again dont want to start any flameworks... if you are interested in a unix-y environment you might as well go to the source and use linux (i use fedora but more hard core users may recommend debian or free bsd, both of which are exceptional)... point is if you dont mind the non-cool look might as well have your dev box be as much of a clone of your prod environment, like a couple of others who mentioned that..

as i was saying if you bring in iphone or mac dev into the scene then you dont have much of a choice unless you want to play around with installing osx on a PC and all that headache (which i do plan to do myself in order to avoid forking out a fortune on a mac)

yeah productivity is very subjective so cant comment on that... for example in linux i love it that when i do an alt-tab the window currently in the alt-tab "round" gets a highlight so it is quick and easy to spot. i tried quite a few task-switching plugins in windows and have still not stumbled on this feature... silly isnt it? amazing what little things can can do to productivity...