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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

#31
I'm so tempted to get one of these. With the shell plugin, I have access to my very high-powered servers, and Chrome comes with a nice development environment. Besides that, it's cheap and light -- a perfect roadkit.

The only problem I see is the keyboard. I hate typing on netbook keyboards. I don't even like the keyboard on the Macbook Air.

Maybe I'd get used to it after awhile?

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#32
post #25

I just don't understand this attempts to use shitty and cheap piece of hardware to do development. You are not coding for food, right? Why bother yourself trying to use something that will make you so counterproductive? Need powerful something - get desktop. Need something slim and sexy - get f * macbookair Need both - get pro Need internet connection on the go - get nexus if you use tablet. Oh don't need it -use tet…

What you are missing is that he is not an apple fanboi.

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#33
post #5

I 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, bare…

Went to Best Buy, typed "laptop", first result

Toshiba - Satellite 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Satin Black Model: C855D/S5103 • SKU: 8119044 62 Ratings $279.99

That's 2x the ram and I get 320 HD which even if you don't want to use it for storage it's pretty awesome when running any OS that supports virtual memory. Have you looked at how much virtual memory your average Linux distro ends up using?

That was just the first hit. There's plenty of machines in the same price range as a chromebook that have better specs, more power and therefore more freedom.

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#34
>> Right out of the box, things work quite well. The Secure Shell browser extension can give you an xterm-compliant terminal directly in a browser tab. >> Be sure to install the Crosh Window browser extension. It allows you to pull the browser-tab terminal out into its own window. Without it, many important key bindings will be swallowed by the browser.

Or just buy a new laptop, delete Windows and install Ubuntu and have a real machine with real software, not browser based similarities.

edits: fixing my brain's desire to misspell buy.

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#35
post #5

I 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…

[deleted]

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious, since I've used every nexus device to date: which ones disable tethering? I can't recall one that does.

Nexus 7 3G bought outright entirely separately to any plan or network carrier. Tethering is entirely disabled and many forums confirm this. And while I theoretically could I am not going to install a "cracked" version of Android from a l33td00d7 user on a php forum just to get a fundamentally basic and useful networking feature which is present in other installs of Android and which there was no reason to turn off. T…

[deleted]

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, bare…

you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. That's what scares me the most. Unless I have the option of not using Google's infrastructure, and can run my own "ChromeOS Storage/Auth Server" on a computer of my choice, then I'd never trust the OS. Google is expecting a surreal amount of trust that no single corporation should be given.

[deleted]

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#38
post #5

I 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, bare…

save $1000, and that feels good

If price/value is the main concern a used 4-5 year old x86 laptop is a way better deal. I have an old HP nc8430 for this purpose. Sells on eBay for about $100-$150 these days. Blows away a low end ARM ChromeBook on performance, price and flexibility.

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#39
post #5

I 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…

I switched to a (non-developer-mode) Chromebook recently for work. It's a great development machine for what I use it for. My main workstation basically runs Chrome, Emacs, and some xterms. On my Pixel, I can just use Secure Shell to ssh to my tmux session and be working on exactly what I was using on my desktop. (Port forwarding works too, if you're developing a web app or something.) It's like being at my desktop except the keyboard and ergonomics aren't as good.

If I need to edit a screencast or image, two things I've never done for work ever in my life, I can just use Chrome Remote Desktop to log into my workstation. (I have a friend who logs in to his Windows machine at home using Chrome Remote Desktop and plays Final Fantasy. It's that usable!)

For what it's worth, I never really used a laptop until I got my Chromebook Pixel, because it was so painful to keep it up to date and my configuration sync'd. My Thinkpad X220 has been sitting dead on my windowsill for about a year. With ChromeOS, I don't have to deal with that anymore; I can just open up my computer and use it. And it's that usability that makes it worthwhile to me. (I also love the touchscreen and high resolution display!)

I'm also pretty excited about the flexibility of the Chrome APIs for writing packaged apps. One thing that made me apprehensive about switching from a Linux laptop to a Chromebook was that I wouldn't be able to use all the features of my portable HF SDR ham radio (an Elecraft KX3) while traveling with only my laptop. But, fixing this is just a simple matter of programming -- you can write a Chrome app that controls a USB device, and you can read incoming audio. (Meaning that you can tune the radio and read the I/Q signal via the soundcard. The only snag is that the Chromebook Pixel has only one channel of input, and you need two to reassemble the nearby radio signals. But a USB dongle can fix that problem.) Anyway, I'm looking forward to the era where complex cross-platform software is just a click away, and right now the tools exist. It's time to start using them!

Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

#40
post #12

I'd be curious to hear more about installing chrooted Debian/Ubuntu to provide a full GNU userland locally. I'm still not quite sure what this would look like, or what the limitations might be.

Crouton is awesome—you get a chrooted Ubuntu accessible via crosh. You have CLI access with `sudo enter-chroot` and can launch XFCE4 with `sudo startxfce4`.

I never use XFCE, but if you do, you can seamlessly toggle between ChromeOS and XFCE with a keyboard shortcut (e.g. a YouTube video playing in ChromeOS remains playing if you switch to XFCE).

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