diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 6c338e4b8..08a257116 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -4,17 +4,20 @@
 # Original content copyright (c) 2014 dpen2000 licensed under the MIT license
 
 VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"
+Vagrant.require_version ">= 1.5.0"
 
 Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
 
-  # A VMware compatible box is avaliable from:
-  # https://github.com/spkane/vagrant-boxes/releases/download/v1.0.0/trusty64_vmware.box
-  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
+  # Ubuntu 14.04 compatible with both VirtualBox and VMWare Fusion
+  # see https://github.com/phusion/open-vagrant-boxes#readme
+  config.vm.box = "phusion/ubuntu-14.04-amd64"
+
+  config.vm.hostname = "coco-dev"
 
   config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 3000, host: 3000
   config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 9485, host: 9485
 
-  config.vm.provision "shell", path: "scripts/vagrant/provision.sh"
+  config.vm.provision "shell", path: "scripts/vagrant/provision.sh", privileged: false
 
   config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
     v.memory = 2048
@@ -22,8 +25,8 @@ Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
   end
 
   config.vm.provider "vmware_fusion" do |v|
-    v.memory = 2048
-    v.cpus = 2
+    v.vmx["memsize"] = "2048"
+    v.vmx["numvcpus"] = 2
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh b/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh
index feb401064..ca7e5c437 100755
--- a/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh
+++ b/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh
@@ -4,11 +4,14 @@ mkdir -p /vagrant/temp
 cd /vagrant/temp
 rm -f dump.tar.gz
 rm -rf dump
-wget http://analytics.codecombat.com:8080/dump.tar.gz
-tar xzvf dump.tar.gz --no-same-owner
-mongorestore --drop
+echo "Downloading mongo dump file..."
+wget --no-verbose http://analytics.codecombat.com:8080/dump.tar.gz
+tar xzf dump.tar.gz --no-same-owner
+echo "Restoring mongo dump file..."
+mongorestore --quiet --drop
 if [ -d /vagrant/temp/backup ]
 then
+  echo "Restoring mongo backup..."
   cd /vagrant/temp/backup
-  mongorestore
+  mongorestore --quiet
 fi
diff --git a/scripts/vagrant/provision.sh b/scripts/vagrant/provision.sh
index c6910d11d..513f62665 100644
--- a/scripts/vagrant/provision.sh
+++ b/scripts/vagrant/provision.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/bin/bash -e
 # Original content copyright (c) 2014 dpen2000 licensed under the MIT license
 
+# some defaults
+DISTRO="trusty"
+NODE_VERSION="0.10" # 0.10 | 0.12 | 4.x | 5.x
+
+# inform apt that there's no user to answer interactive questions
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
 # Set default ulimits
 cat <<- EOF > /tmp/limits.conf
 * soft nofile 10000
@@ -9,23 +16,44 @@ EOF
 sudo mv /tmp/limits.conf /etc/security/limits.conf
 sudo chown root:root /etc/security/limits.conf
 
-#Install required software
-sudo apt-get -y update
-sudo apt-get -y install python-software-properties git
-sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:chris-lea/node.js
-sudo apt-get -y update
-sudo apt-get -y install nodejs
-sudo apt-get -y install g++ make
-mkdir /vagrant/node_modules
-sudo mkdir /node_modules
-sudo chown vagrant:vagrant /node_modules
-sudo mount -o bind /node_modules /vagrant/node_modules
-cd /vagrant
-npm install
-sudo npm install -g geoip-lite
-bower install --allow-root
+# install prerequisites
+curl -s https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
+echo "deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_${NODE_VERSION} ${DISTRO} main
+deb-src https://deb.nodesource.com/node_${NODE_VERSION} ${DISTRO} main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list
 sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 7F0CEB10
 echo 'deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb.list
-sudo apt-get -y update
-sudo apt-get -y install mongodb-org
-bash /vagrant/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh
+
+echo "updating apt sources..."
+sudo apt-get -qq update
+
+echo "installing prerequisites..."
+sudo apt-get -qqy install --no-install-recommends git g++ make curl wget
+
+# install node.js
+echo "installing node.js..."
+sudo apt-get -qqy install nodejs
+echo "upgrading npm..."
+sudo npm install -g npm@latest # upgrade npm
+sudo npm install -g geoip-lite
+sudo npm install -g bower
+
+# bind /vagrant/node_modules so that it does not leak through to the host file system
+# which triggers symlink and path size issues on Windows hosts
+mkdir -p /vagrant/node_modules
+sudo mkdir -p /node_modules
+sudo chown vagrant:vagrant /node_modules
+sudo mount --bind /node_modules /vagrant/node_modules
+cd /vagrant
+
+# install npm modules
+echo "installing modules..."
+npm install
+bower install
+
+# install mongo
+echo "installing mongodb..."
+sudo apt-get -qqy install --no-install-recommends mongodb-org
+
+# populate mongo
+echo "populating mongodb..."
+exec /vagrant/scripts/vagrant/fillMongo.sh