Asus x205ta is a better, lighter, cheaper alternative to chromebooks. Install vagrant and use linux. This works perfectly fine for me, have been using this setup for months now, and did i tell you the screen quality and battery life are excellent! All i needed was a browser and command line. I got both with this tiny little machine :)
Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#12I use a Samsung Chromebook 2 running XFCE via crouton. I use it as my main machine for work and play. Because I do web development, the only real drawback with this setup is the ARM processor (not all software has builds for ARM) but in return I get incredible battery life. Like, really outstanding battery life.
Some software that won't run on ARM:
- Skype (use Google Hangouts instead)
- SVN (why aren't you using Git already?)
- Sublime Text (I begrudgingly use Geany or Ninja IDE)
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#13I had been using a C720 with crouton up until a week ago. I usually just close the lid to hibernate it, but that particular day I turned it off. When I turned it back on, I couldn't restart crouton ("Cannot open /dev/tty0 (No such file or directory")
I suspect that's the result of an update in the underlying ChromeOS, but I can't say for sure. Regardless, I think I'll wipe ChrOS off anyway and just put Debian Jessie on it. I don't like to think my setup can be broken by an underlying OS update.
I mostly like the hardware. My biggest gripe is the lack of a delete key on the keyboard, and the placement of the power button just above the backspace key makes it easy to hit inadvertently,
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#14I've been using a Toshiba Chromebook 2 (4GB, full-HD display version) that I got on sale at Best Buy for ~$280 during their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales and it's really done good for me so far. Crouton took no time at all to set up, and I only use it when I can't do something in the cloud or SSH'd to one of my servers. Since most of my time, including most development time, is spent "in the cloud" then the only thing I really need my Chromebook for is basic web browsing and an SSH client. I also occasionally use Koding for development, and I'm looking into Cloud9 just for the added ability of being able to hook it up to my own server(s). Most of my work is web development (Go, JavaScript/Node.js, HTML stuff, python, ruby, etc.), software development (Go, Linux stuff, etc.), and security auditing/light pentesting (which I can do with a small set of tool using crouton or other tools that live on my servers).
Overall, if you have something that's nearly always on - like a server or VM - then the Chromebook will treat you really well. Even if you don't have one, you can easily use free services such as Koding and Cloud9 for development systems, all without even touching crouton. The only thing you'd really need crouton for is if you want more fine grain control of the software living on your machine, install other program (e.g. firefox, tor browser, atom, or any linux programs).
As far as hardware, the Chromebook has just what I need to survive. The speakers on the Toshiba Chromebook 2 are awesomely loud, and made by SkullCandy which explains that. The battery life at 100% can easily last 10-12 hours of full use. The display is a gorgeous 1080P IPS display, and it has HDMI out just in case. The 4GB full-HD model also has a 2.58 GHz intel celeron processor, so I don't have to worry about ARM compatibilities and it just runs very well, plus it has 4GB of RAM to help with that processing. One factor I was very surprised about was the weight: it's barely there. Seriously though, I didn't expect it to be that light. But it doesn't have a fan, so that could explain why it's so light - not enough thickness to pack heavier componentry into. And it doesn't get too hot at all either, unless you're using it from 100% to dead constantly with heavier processing then it gets just a bit warm.
Overall, if you can shell out the couple hundred dollars for a Chromebook, I'd go for it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#15I'm using a 150$ chromebook for casual .js development.. I use "caret" text editor, and chrome as my toolchain :)
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#16I use a Samsung Chromebook 2 running XFCE via crouton. I use it as my main machine for work and play. Because I do web development, the only real drawback with this setup is the ARM processor (not all software has builds for ARM) but in return I get incredible battery life. Like, really outstanding battery life. Some software that won't run on ARM: - Skype (use Google Hangouts instead) - SVN (why aren't you using Git…
I use the same setup XFCE on my Samsung chromebook. I code python on my machine but for things that won't run ARM I have a Mac Mini that has virtual box where I run headless virtual machines. I can reach my server from anywhere using OpenVPN as it is hooked to my home router and use dynamic DNS to reach the OpenVPN server. I am testing lots of projects with that setup. I use Docker, Ansible, Cloudier Hadoop and other projects :) my own private cloud server.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#17I've been using a Samsung Series 5 XE55 for quite a while - about 2 years now.
I've installed crouton and the extension that lets it run in a browser tab. It works pretty well for development tasks. I also use a couple of cloud dev environments (nitrous.io and codeanywhere) and of course just straight up ssh into a server if I feel like it.
I tend to work in any of ruby, python, c#, go, php, general front end javascript, html, css and lots of database stuff - so essentially various forms of web dev. I've never really had any trouble getting things up and running in croutaon - even managed to get mono and c# working and the latest visual studio code on it.
Which of the three options I use (crouton, cloud, ssh) is really down to whim. I'm comfortable using different dev environments, which I think helps - I'm not fanatical about any particular editor or tool chain - so I'm happy in vim, sublime text, visual studio, online editors etc and climb in and out of languages as I need to. The key for me is to have a disciplined git workflow with my repositories stashed nicely online. The only thing I miss now and then, is some easy image optimisation in the chromeos itself.
I kind of love the fact that the chromebook has great battery life, a pretty comfortable keyboard and that it's basically disposable (I got a factory second for less than £100). It's also pretty sturdy. I've travelled a fair bit with it, dropped it and banged it around, it's been splashed, had coffee poured on it, children's grubby fingers poking the screen - I just don't care...I wipe it down and carry on. It's kind of nice to not be precious about my equipment and the discipline a small hard drive forces on me means everything is properly stashed and backed up so if the machine dies...well c'est la vie.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use a Chromebook for dev? What is your toolchain?
#18I did for awhile for Python development. I use the NumPy/SciPy stack, and only used Chromebooks with the 2955u chip, so it ran pretty snappy for me. Bad screen got to me, and rather than drop money on a Pixel I bought an HP x360 Spectre and haven't looked back. The Chromebook is still nice for travel/coffeeshop where damage/loss/theft is a concern as they are priced so cheap. I spilled a beer on one, shrugged, went out and bought a replacement. And how can you knock an all day battery?
Right now the Chromebook is being used as a chrome cast station that I leave by the couch. Today it was streaming classical music youtube videos for me.