I happen to use Go and a Makefile to build my servers, and my deployment process works on osx and linux, so I end up not having to have to replicate an environment for development.

Even so, Go and a makefile won't account for filesystem differences, databases, services like cron, etc in a deployment environment.

I looked in to Docker on osx, but I am waiting for their latest beta Docker for Mac to come out. I think something like this with a lower learning curve would be more ideal for virtualization. It lowers the feedback loop on experimenting.

I run Postgresql on one of my VPS machines, and I dread having to upgrade it all the time.