Step 1. Download and install VMware Player.
Step 2. Download so you can create a hard disk image. (You can also run Linux on Windows using qemu)
Step 3. Create a virtual hard disk image using qemu. qemu-img create -f vmdk yourdisk.vmdk 10G
will create a virtual disk file called yourdisk.vmdk, and it will have a 10GB capacity.
Step 4. Download you favorite Linux installer CD or DVD. My favorite is the Fedora 8 KDE LiveCD, but just about any modern distro should work.
Step 5. Download or a virtual machine definition file, it should have the filename extension .vmx (another ) Open the vmx file with a text editor and make sure to set the memsize to an acceptable amount for your machine (I use half the physical RAM available) and make sure the file names for the CD/DVD iso image and vmdk disk image match the files on your machine.
Step 6. Run the vmx file using vmplayer (booting from the CD iso file), and install Linux to the virtual disk.
Step 7. Reboot the virtual machine and install the AVR32 toolchain or run buildroot.
* debian.vmx: VMX file to install Debian from business card iso