I'd say the whole argument between VMWare and Cygwin is this:
VMWare:
Pro: Easy Setup, Compiling takes ~half the time.
Con: Takes up a lot of disk space. Sometimes unreliable network access to the files.
Cygwin:
Pro: Smaller footprint on disk space. Easier to access your files.
Con: Setup can go wrong in a myriad of ways. Compiling is measured in decades rather than minutes.
Okay, so I'm exaggerating very slightly on that final point, but it's really Space and direct filesystem access vs Speed and ease of setup.