Question: Long story short, I am trying to find a pre-made Linux development environment for VirtualBox so I don't have to worry about installing a distro, getting all packages installed, and so forth, since last time I did that it took me a full day to get something that remotely did what I wanted.

I've got a few semi-weird requirements, which doesn't help...

* Preferably SSH only, no slick GUI etc installed, as the laptop host is not endowed with a lot of HD space or RAM. (Which is also why I cannot dual boot, so please do not suggest that option.) I intend to do pretty much all using PuTTy, as it is a workflow I'm already accustomed to.
* Basic gcc, automake etc are all I need.

I really don't care about the distro itself, or the packaging system, or anything else really. I just want to download it, set up some mounts, and be ready to go.

If such a thing doesn't exist, I'd still appreciate suggestions of the best distro to use that will get me to my requirements fastest without a lot of tweaking.

Answer: 
Turnkey linux has a number of preconfigured server images that will work in virtualbox

<http://www.turnkeylinux.org/>

<http://www.turnkeylinux.org/docs/installation-appliances-virtualbox>
If I understand your question correctly, you are wanting a VBox image that is a pre-made linux distro that you will run, but ssh into to communicate, to do some non-gui development? But you do not have a lot of RAM? 

I guess my first concern is that even with just running a CLI interface, won't VBox take up your RAM anyways? Do you have enough to run vbox in the first place (which I believe is the amount needed for you host system + the amount needed for your virtual instance)?

Second, though no pre-made distros come to mind (bearing, I have done no research), it seems given your unique circumstances it might be to your benefit to download something like [Debian-minimal](http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst) and install the core system and the utilities you need on top of that. It will require a one-time setup, but once it's done, you can just reuse your own custom image.

At this point in linux's development, I am all for package-managed systems, even when space is a concern.

I know this doesn't directly answer the question at hand, but I hope it helps a little.

Cheers!