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My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

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41–50 of 74 posts

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#41
I am Clojure noobie but this post got me thinking: Would it be possible to set up a Clojure REPL on a JVM in the cloud. This would allow one to run a cheap laptop/chromebook with local File system on a thumb-drive and do actual execution on the cloud JVM. This would allow one to do a fast grep on local files as needed while offloading heavy duty processing on the cloud m/c.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#42
At the moment, VPS prices are still prohibitive for many types of development. I, for instance, simply couldn't work on a machine with less than 4GB of RAM; preferably, there's 16GB or even 32GB in there. A 4GB Linode instance sets me back a cool $330 a month, which is, of course, not a proposition worth entertaining.

However, I'm sure it's enough for front-end development or what have you.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#43
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feel inferior for not using vim. People who claim that vim/emacs are the ultimate environment typically have a very narrow world-view in my experience. There are absolutely no absolutes!

> There are absolutely no absolutes! and then: > People who claim that vim/emacs are the ultimate environment typically have a very narrow world-view in my experience. Yes, you add the word "typically" in there, so it's not technically an absolute, but really, what you're saying is not much better. I'm not going to tell you that you need to abandon your IDE, but I use a DDE centered around Vim, and I like to think th…

That's not a response to his point. His point is not that vim users have a narrow worldview.

His point is that people who claim that vim is the ultimate environment have a narrow worldview.

Reading a tiny bit into what he said, he's judging those who would see their editor of choice as the ultimate, i.e., as seeing those who don't use it as using an inferior tool.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#45

What is the latency like developing in vim over ssh? I would find the little bit of wait with each key stroke annoying quickly.

Obviously that will depend on your connection but also on whether you are using vim in text mode or using something like gvim via X11 tunelling.

You can do text mode in near realtime on a 56k modem, OTOH I still have some noticeable lag (typing is ok, but menus etc lag) on my home broadband if I'm doing X11 forwarding.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#46
post #3

I use NetBeans for development, and always feel like I'm slightly inferior for not relying on vim. There's certainly a lot to be said for it, but I really like (1) being able to zoom straight to the definition of one of my functions (can vim do this?), and (2) being able to code offline / on localhost sometimes. And I think the second point is my problem with this. Chances are, if I get a cheapo PC or a tablet to cod…

VIM and NetBeans are two very different beasts. Netbeans is an Integrated Development Environment for Java (primarily) with excellent debugger, profiler and J2EE Serverin addition to all the code editing capabilities. If those functions are not important to your work, then go with vim/Emacs/Sublime Text 2 or whatever.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#47
I could see myself adapting this strategy, except that my employer requires me to use a VPN client that runs only on Windows and OS X. As of right now this solution makes economic sense if you already use cloud storage. Assuming storage costs will continue to decrease and the network accessibility will continue to increase, then I can definitely see myself using it for personal projects.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#48
I see the authors point of view and I like the idea in theory however I just can't help but want a real operating system to work on instead of just a browser. I have seen some people have got Ubuntu working on the latest Chromebooks which is a step in the right direction (for me).

If I could get a solid Linux install on a Chromebook (Debian or Slack for example) with a super lightweight tiling WM I would be in heaven.

I love the idea of doing the heavy lifting on a remote server but I also want/need the ability to do _some_ work on the system without internet access so a local gcc, gdb, vim, emacs, java, python, etc. install is a must for those times I can't get online but still want to hack a little bit.

I do believe the future for me will be cheap lower powered systems which I use for the light work and offloading the heavy stuff to a VPS but the hardware and software (OS) balance isn't there just yet.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#49
post #3

I use NetBeans for development, and always feel like I'm slightly inferior for not relying on vim. There's certainly a lot to be said for it, but I really like (1) being able to zoom straight to the definition of one of my functions (can vim do this?), and (2) being able to code offline / on localhost sometimes. And I think the second point is my problem with this. Chances are, if I get a cheapo PC or a tablet to cod…

You can use vim and gvim locally.

Sharpening your tools is an investment where you trade time now for power later. Vim is very much an instance of that trade-off. It's a ridiculously flexible power tool. If you are a machine at driving nails with a rusty hammer and you are happy, then there's no reason to stop doing it that way.But if the reason you don't use vim is that you're scared of it, it's not as bad as you think. You don't have to be superior to learn it, you just need a week and an open mind.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#50
post #38

I enjoyed his iPad one a bit more. Clearly there is a space here and the Chrome book provides some additional leverage. But it is most interesting to see the 'smart terminal' getting re-invented by this author and others. Which really has me wondering about where those guys are now. Is there an actual "use case" for this as a product? What would a terminal designer do? In many ways the ASUS tablets seem to be good st…

I've been along these lines a bit. Look at it this way: what if, say a pebble sized computer held all the computing state. To actually use it, you would have to keep it near, or pair it somehow, with a keyboard, monitor and (optionally) mouse. Instead of having computers, tablets etc. we would have: a tiny computer, and multiple screens, keyboards, whatever.

I like that too, although the the CPU/cc number is still too high. Presumably this was part of the thinking of the moto phone that transformed, and my nexus phone isn't quite powerful enough to do all this.
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