Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
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Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#2Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box!
I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life.
But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use.
Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5) for battery life and that can do ssh as well, sadly though IRDA and serial are not the cutting edge comm's standards. Have been a few that come close, but just not jumped out at me.
That said I'm still awaiting for something of that form factor with some modern love.
That all said if Mr Linux Linus is happy with a chromebook as a dev machince, then they must be doing something right, though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#3I am not sure I actually see myself doing development on this hardware. Maybe it is due to the type of work I am doing now and the requirement of the sheer amount of data/services running locally. But I wouldn't mind using this essentially as an operating environment with a few tmux sessions open.
The more that I tinker with OpenStack and generally setting up virtualized services I am beginning to be sway towards never necessarily needing to buy a desktop machine again.
Up until a few months ago my machines sat around just to collect dust. But I see a future where a Chromebook style machine can easily connect to a VPN with an OpenStack cloud powering development. Its actually quite damn easy now if you invest the time.
The only reason I do not do this now is that I have been unable to find a machine with decent enough resolution and great battery life. But I've told myself that my next laptop (right now a 15 inch MacBook Pro) will be something significantly smaller.
I just hope that the retina displays catch up with the rest of the industry.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#4This is the $250 ARM Chromebook he is writing about BTW.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#5I don't see the point in using a crippled operating system when it will prevent you from quickly editing a low res screen cast or editing an image in the GIMP. Machines in that price range have enough performance to do some of these tasks even if they're not optimal for them. If I'm on the move away from a bigger system I might still need to do it though, so not having that capacity just because of someone's "in the cloud" dream is silly.
It's already bad enough that Google maims some of the Nexus line by disabling tethering. Android is also inflexible in many ways regarding having a local easy to use file system etc. I personally can't wait to get off Android and onto Ubuntu mobile or Firefox OS.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#6Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life. But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use. Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi…
> Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box!
Agreed, and if you put Ubuntu on it (or the Chromebook), doesn't this all become much easier with its remote login from the login page feature? Not sure if any other distros have that too, but regardless, surely it'd be much easier?
>though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget.
According to the article a MacBook Air used to fill this role, totally agree that both are crazy expensive for that.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#7Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life. But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use. Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi…
It's a true shame no manufacture has released a modern version of the Psion 5mx. If there is a market for Linux / BSD portables, that would fill it nicely.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#8I don't see the point in using a crippled operating system when it will prevent you from quickly editing a low res screen cast or editing an image in the GIMP. Machines in that price range have enough performance to do some of these tasks even if they're not optimal for them. If I'm on the move away from a bigger system I might still need to do it though, so not having that capacity just because of someone's "in the…
As stated in the article, the "point" is to have the same functionality for a fraction of the cost. You can still run image editing software or whatever you'd run on your workstation using NX. That's somewhat inconvenient, but then it boots faster with no malware, and you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. So it's a trade-off, not a "crippling" as you've put it. Some folks, like the author, barely notice a difference in quality yet save $1000, and that feels good.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#9I have a chroot'ed Samsung Intel Chromebook that makes an OK development machine for small projects using Eclipse/Java/H2/Jetty. If I fully rooted it the extra ram would make the machine a bit more useful.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#10Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life. But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use. Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psi…
A cheap netbook of the same price will invariably be worse in some way, since the Windows license cost is included, so they've had to cut corners somewhere, and it might not show in the specs list, but in the build quality of the device, its thinness/lightness, the quality of the display, etc