Questions should concern compiling for a platform different than the one the compiler is running on. Compiling inside a VM does not count unless it's some sort of hybrid setup i.e. the host which is a different platform is involved.
Cross-compiling is the process of creating executable code for a platform different from the one the compiler is running on. The platforms can differ concerning e.g. operating system or architecture. An example would be compiling for an embedding system on the ARM architecture on a desktop x86 platform
