I come from a windows background and i am proficient with the .net platform. For work, i need to bring up a custom embedded system platform. We have bought the pandaboard ES as the test platform. The application is to stream images over the wifi. If you think about it, we are building something similar to a netgear router - the only difference being when you log into the device it serves images.

Because my background is in windows i am not quite sure how to start off with embedded linux development. in reading through various sites i have come to the conclusion that going to linux as development host is the best option.

Can some one point to me in the right direction regarding the set up. I have a windows machine that will be used for development purposes. I can either do a virtual box or setup a partition for linux. But the finer details are what throwing me off..what i need to know is

1) once i install linux what other software do I need - Code blocks, 2) what about toolchain 3) How to debug - through serial port ? 4) Is there a way to send the image built directly to the CF card?

Thanks