d3c0n

yea i would just load a native version of bt4 on one of the laptops i assume it has wifi already, if you use an ethernet connections to connect it to your network you could theoretically ssh from anywhere to that box and do some wireless work when ever you want. After a few simple port forwards of course. As far as the other box ubuntu i believe you said, i would run it native as well depending on how fast the laptops are. With vmware im not sure bt4 will be able to access the wifi adapter or not, it might be worth playing around with. Personally i just take all the bits and parts i have lying around to make my test boxes(I copied hak5 with their plexi comp.)

I'm new and just offering my .02 so feel free to disregard anything I say. It depends what you want to do. If you just want to play around with linux and dont plan on running any services then vmware workstation would be a good option. If you plan on running services like httpd or email or ftp then i would just do a local install on a box. Now a days just about any hardware you can throw together will be supported by some version of *nix which is not the case with esxi v4. Also are you going to want to run them headless?