Here's a step-by-step list of useful things to do when setting up Ubuntu under VMWare.

1) Install Ubuntu from live CD to a hard-drive

2) add your account to /etc/sudoers using sudo visudo command. Add line:

%kjk     ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

That way you don't have to provide a password to sudo command.

3) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to make sure you have the latest stuff. It probably doesn't hurt.

4) Use menu System\Preferences\Screen Saver to disable screen saver.

5) Use menu System\Preferences\Sound to disable sound.

6) Switch to Mist theme (System\Preferences\Theme)

7) Change font sizes to 8

8) Use System\Administration\Synaptic Package Manager, menu Settings\Repositories to enable other sources of packages (all of them).

9) Use System\Preferences\Desktop Background to set background to some gray, solid background.

10) Enable vnc server (System\Preferences\Remote Desktop)

11) Install a bunch of stuff:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
sudo apt-get install linux-kernel-devel linux-source linux-headers-386
sudo apt-get install emacs21 subversion
sudo apt-get install bison flex gperf python-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev 
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev libcairo2-dev libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get install libcurl3-dev sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev cmake
sudo apt-get install most

12) Uninstall a bunch of stuff to make the vmware image smaller

sudo apt-get remove gimp gimp-data gimp-print gimp-python
sudo apt-get remove openoffice.org* evolution* gaim

13) Install VMWare tools

14) Customize emacs: cd ~; wget http://kjk.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/.emacs

15) Customize ~/.bashrc and add:

alias emacs='emacs -nw'
alias tlist='ps aux'

16) To access linux directory under Windows via Samba use System\Administration\Shared Folder menu.

Select folder to share and other settings.

Add a samba user/password for accessing the folder with: sudo smbpasswd -a <user>

Those user names/passwords are independent of Unix user names/passwords (I think).