Hi Michael,
Great! If you use the nuget package that it will definitely be slower by default. You can always speed it up by manually running:
skc5.exe /service:console
Where skc5.exe is the file you've downloaded via nuget. This will simply run the SharpKit service as a simple console app that listens to the same port. You have to be careful of course not to run multiple instances of the service, since they all use the same port and will fail to listen to the same one at once.
I've tried the MacBook+VirtualBox combo, and personally I prefer the macbook+bootcamp+native windows option better. :-)
Regarding the build time - after the first build it should be much faster, things you can consider that might help:
1. If you have many projects in your solution - consider setting Tools->Options->Projects and Solutions->Build and Run->Only build startup projects and dependencies needed to run
2. Check if you run x64 or x86 version of windows, as well as if SharpKit runs in x64 or x86 mode. If you have a strong machine with a 4 or more cores, x64 might work faster.
Cheers
D.