Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#1

Post by msrivas » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 8:56 AM UTC

I love the design on the new pixelbook - https://store.google.com/us/product/google_pixelbook but I have a hard time believing that its of any use for a developer or even a remote power user. Does anyone have any experience using it as their primary machine and for what purposes ?

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#2

Post by navigaid » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:34 AM UTC

Just a comment. ChromeOS may soon be able to run OCI containers.

Source: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+WilliamGreene76/posts/Qosa9BstS...

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#3

Post by bergie » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:35 AM UTC

I used a Chromebook Pixel as my primary dev machine for a couple of years. Works great with either crouton or Termux for the Linux-y stuff.

Later I switched to an Android tablet: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android-2017/

I had to return the tablet when I quit my previous job, so now programming from an iPad Pro.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#4

Post by bkolobara » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:40 AM UTC

I'm wondering how feasible is it to run your development 100% on a remote machine. One of the drawbacks is that you need always access to internet, but this would not be a problem for me.

I don't think that ssh + vim would work for me. I like GUI editors. Is there a good self hosted cloud IDE? Or is it maybe possible to run VS Code on a remote machine and access it through a web interface?

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#5

Post by keenerd » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:42 AM UTC

Yes. It has been great and I've written about it: http://kmkeen.com/c100p-tweaks/

Asus has released an updated version (C101) with USB-C: https://liliputing.com/2017/09/asus-chromebook-flip-c101-hit...

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#6

Post by vcool07 » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:43 AM UTC

bergie wrote: post #3

I used a Chromebook Pixel as my primary dev machine for a couple of years. Works great with either crouton or Termux for the Linux-y stuff. Later I switched to an Android tablet: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android-2017/ I had to return the tablet when I quit my previous job, so now programming from an iPad Pro.

interesting, do you use an external kb ? doesn't the small screen bother you (especially multi window IDEs) ?

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#7

Post by ralmidani » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:45 AM UTC

I used a Samsung ChromeBook 2 (ARM) for about 3 years. You can load a full GNU/Linux environment such as Debian or Ubuntu with Crouton, but you have to enable developer mode.

This involves an annoying beep every time you turn your machine on (or otherwise hitting ctrl-d at the right time), and you run the risk of disabling developer mode--thereby reformatting your drive--if you accidentally hit Spacebar.

Unless they're changing how dev mode works on the new PixelBooks, I do not recommend using one as a dev machine. This year, I bought a Dell XPS Developer Edition and never looked back.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#8

Post by bergie » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:45 AM UTC

vcool07 wrote: post #6

bergie wrote: post #3

I used a Chromebook Pixel as my primary dev machine for a couple of years. Works great with either crouton or Termux for the Linux-y stuff. Later I switched to an Android tablet: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/working-on-android-2017/ I had to return the tablet when I quit my previous job, so now programming from an iPad Pro.

interesting, do you use an external kb ? doesn't the small screen bother you (especially multi window IDEs) ?

I used the 11" MacBook Air for a few years, so I'm quite used to working with small screens. Good eyesight means I can fit ton of vim splits on the screen with a small-ish font.

Example: https://d2vqpl3tx84ay5.cloudfront.net/android-tablet-2017/pi... (from the Android tablet I had before this current iPad)

Right now I'm typing this using the Smart Keyboard from Apple, but I also have a nice custom mechanical keyboard that I can plug in when I'm home: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/atreus-build-log/

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#9

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:45 AM UTC

bkolobara wrote: post #4

I'm wondering how feasible is it to run your development 100% on a remote machine. One of the drawbacks is that you need always access to internet, but this would not be a problem for me. I don't think that ssh + vim would work for me. I like GUI editors. Is there a good self hosted cloud IDE? Or is it maybe possible to run VS Code on a remote machine and access it through a web interface?

There are various such things e.g. https://codeanywhere.com/ but not self-hosted; that's quite an onerous requirement.

I suppose you could use Apache Guacamole and remote-desktop to a machine..

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook or Pixelbook as your primary machine?

#10

Post by jcun4128 » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 10:47 AM UTC

From my experience try to get one that has a non-arm chip (intel) with regard to being able to install everything. I almost could install everything (crouton) but like VS Code wasn't supported.

I have this "fear" that my laptop will be stolen so I try to run everything off a USB (attached to my keys) so laptop is pretty much disposable assuming ~$100 in cost (used).

The ram/storage is a concern and I'm talking the junk 2GB 32GB setups. I picked up an ASUS TP200SA 11.6" transformer lately. I know not really able to do much on a 11.6" computer.

Still it's cool got all my stuff setup but can't have different stacks configured (not enough ram) so remote to develop. At least plain JS you can run by browser.

Just my thoughts,definitely got my two screen setup at home just bought a 22" 1080p monitor ohhh yeah.