> sweet
Is a massive exaggeration
Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
71–80 of 84 posts
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
But not on weight/battery life. It all depends on your priorities.
Maybe not battery life/weight… but on being an actual computer with storage you can rely on and a properly supported operating system.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#73I 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…
I need my balls not to be cooked by the power-hungry processors. I need a light shit because I walk with my backpack a lot. I need the key layout on the keyboard not a pain in the ass. I need my palm to be like little Fonzie. What Fonzie like? It's cool. I need standard linux, because I don't care enough to learn about all the quirks of Apple. I need to have a thing that is light, 3G-capable, has good key layout, coo…
To be fair a Macbook is going to support Linux much better and longer term than the Chromebook.
Seen as it's an actual computer and all not a locked down Google product that needs to be rooted to install an OS in the first place.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#74I'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).
Can you not replace ChromeOS completely?
Seems a bit of a hacky mess if not TBH
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#75It's a sweet machine because you're able to use ssh ... using a special "developer" boot option? Come on people.
SSH does not require a "special developer boot option". You install the SecureShell chrome extension and you're done.
It's actually included on the ARM Chromebook now, I was able to launch it in Best Buy after search for the instructions on my phone (it's Ctrl-Alt-T).
The author is referring to launching normal ssh instead of the version included in cros shell which has a weird runtime configuration menu (much like ftp) and some limitations.
You do need dev mode to start bash even as a non-privileged user unfortunately.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
Can you not replace ChromeOS completely? Seems a bit of a hacky mess if not TBH
Crouton is actually a breeze to use. While the crouton script itself might have a few hacks under-the-hood, the end result is quite slick. Everything just installs under `/usr/local/chroots'. Removing one of your potentially many chrooted installs is just an `rm -rf'.
I prefer keeping ChromeOS primary and just opening a crosh window to expose one of these chroots (a browser and terminal is similar to my work environment on a Mac). Granted, XFCE can act weird if you choose to launch it, but I've never needed that functionality.
If you do want to completely replace ChromeOS, there's Chrubuntu.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, last I checked, Secure Shell relies on an NaCl plugin incompatible with the Samsung ARM Chromebook.
ARM support for Secure Shell was released in 0.8.8 in December.
I picked up a Samsung ARM Chromebook two weeks ago, installed both the latest Secure Shell and the Development version. Neither worked :-/
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you want to use virtual memory? I bet that laptop has a 5400 rpm hard drive - there is no way I want it to be swapping on and off of it at every opportunity. The OS would grind to a halt. For most developers' usage, you'd be better off with a 32gb SSD than with the 320gb slow-as-hell spinner drive. Not to mention a cheap 15.6" laptop gets terrible battery life. My $250 Chromebook gets 6.5-7hours, even when…
just a quick question. With crouton you still get the large developer mode warning right? and it requires either a keystroke or a 30 second to pass correct? and do you have the arm one or another?
Yeah you have to have your chromebook in dev mode, so you'll see the warning. You can press ctrl+d to skip it.
I have the original Series 5 which has a dual core Atom.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
But not on weight/battery life. It all depends on your priorities.
Maybe not battery life/weight… but on being an actual computer with storage you can rely on and a properly supported operating system.
Actual computer as compared to what? A modern Atom processor with an SSD and a few gigs of RAM isn't a powerhouse, but it's plenty for dev work on the go unless you're a graphics programmer or you need a local copy of a large database etc.
The file storage is the one that made me leery. I solved the issue by using owncloud, which so far seems to be working pretty well. The performance could be better but I'm pretty sure that's due to my slow upload connection.
I don't get your last point though. Chrome OS has a pretty rapid pace of development and is getting new features every day. They also have tech support for those who need it.
Re: Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you not replace ChromeOS completely? Seems a bit of a hacky mess if not TBH
Crouton is actually a breeze to use. While the crouton script itself might have a few hacks under-the-hood, the end result is quite slick. Everything just installs under `/usr/local/chroots'. Removing one of your potentially many chrooted installs is just an `rm -rf'. I prefer keeping ChromeOS primary and just opening a crosh window to expose one of these chroots (a browser and terminal is similar to my work environm…
Crouton is interesting and I can see why people would like it. It's just I couldn't invest long term in something that requires effort on Googles part to support as they could drop support at any point.
Haven't heard of Chrubuntu I'll definitely check that out thanks!