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My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

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Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#31

Post by chimeracoder »

WayneDB wrote: post #15
benwerd wrote: 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…

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 that I don't necessarily have a narrow world-view as a result of that choice, thank you very much.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#32

Post by magic5227 »

duck wrote: post #12
magic5227 wrote: post #7

What about installing Ubuntu on these and developing on that? Has anyone reliably done that? Doesn't that make more sense.

From a couple weeks ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4929282 . From that though, I got the impression that using linux isn't easier.

Do you know if Ubuntu will be addressing the issues that were reported? They must have ARM on the roadmap

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#34

Post by DanBC »

benwerd wrote: 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…

> I use NetBeans for development

Tools are tools, and if you're using a hammer as a hammer it doesn't matter if it's a $12 hammer you got from your local hardware shop or if it's some exotic Estwing thing.

(Estwing make nice tools, but their website? Wow. (http://www.estwingtools.co.uk/index.html)

EDIT: I can't nest ().

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#35

Post by JohnBooty »

niggler wrote: post #29
JohnBooty wrote: post #28

As somebody who does a lot of web-oriented work, what weighs me down the most (in terms of development environments) is the need to test my sites on multiple browsers and operating systems. I suspect a lot of developers are in the same boat. At a bare minimum, unless you're targeting a very specific audience, you need a couple of virtual machines running Windows so you can test in IE, and ideally a way to run Safari…

Check out browserling and testling as a solution to cross-browser testing.

Wow, thanks. I hadn't realized how far services like that had advanced.

Browserling lets you run an interactive session (not just screenshots) and will SSH tunnel so you can test sites on your local machine/network that aren't publicly net-accessible. Neat!

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#36

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Same here. I bought the original Samsung Series 5 as soon as it came out. I enjoyed it as a couch computer for quite a while, but eventually began using tablets for that purpose. For the last 6 months or so I have barely touched the Chromebook. Then a few weeks ago I decided to give Secure Shell a try, and I was impressed enough that I've been using the Chromebook all of the time.

Since I already use the browser to look up stuff all of the time anyways, having that a tab next to my shell makes it all the more convenient. And I can use split screen when needed, or make my shell its own window when I want to do distraction-free coding. I see no reason to upgrade for now, I'll probably wait until the 3rd generation to switch over to ARM.

To anyone planning on doing this, I would recommend getting dynamic dns, most routers these days can work with dyn.com (the major provider), and the cost is much lower than Linode or any VPS provider, and you probably already have an older computer that's much better than cheap VPSes.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#38

Post by pm90 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #19

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.

Re: My New Development Laptop: Samsung Chromebook

#40

Post by MatthewPhillips »

Irregardless wrote: post #30

I like the idea and I agree that this will be the way of the future, but it just doesn't seem practical at the moment. Portability is hamstrung by the need for a constant network connection to accomplish anything, and the cost savings of a Chromebook are almost completely washed out when you factor in at least $20/mo. for Linode. Why not just get something from System76? Or install whatever OS you like on one of the…

Dynamic DNS is ~$30/year, and if you're a programming you already have an old computer sitting around that's several times better than the cheapest linode.
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