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Ask HN: Google Chromebook - anybody using it for web development?

32 points| rtdp | 13 years ago | reply

I would like to know the experience if anybody has started using google chromebook for web development full time(as primary development machine not just while mobile).

It might be with online IDEs or a rented EC2 instance and chrombook as terminal to access it. Please share your configuration for such.

Thanks !

24 comments

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[+] fmstephe|13 years ago|reply
I am doing web development mostly from a chromebook.

How: Previously I used the ssh found in crosh (ALT+SHIFT+T > ssh ...) but the crosh ssh freezes if you lose your connection. The crosh will freeze for ~5 minutes before you can close your now worthless terminal tab. This happens a lot if you are on 3G and makes ssh impossible to use. My wireless cuts out enough to make this too frustrating to use.

Now I use secure shell from Google (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/secure%20shell). This app is fantastic. It is very fast and you can kill it whenever you please.

I have a rented linode which I ssh into and hack away in vim. Best development experience I have had.

I mostly use my chromebook at home not mobile. My experience is that since I am happy in the terminal I don't need a full powered PC for development. The chromebook is perfect for snatching an hour here and an hour there for development, since I have a day job and a family. My 17" quad-core laptop gets very little use these days.

I love the keyboard on my chromebook, although I miss the 'end' key almost every day.

Problems: I only test my web-app regularly in chrome. So I tend to build up safari and firefox css bugs over time and have to fix them in lumps.

[+] garindra|13 years ago|reply
Have you tried using Browserstack (http://browserstack.com) to test different browsers directly from a browser tab? It's been very helpful to me, and the range of the browsers that they offer is breathtaking (they offer IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, iOS, Android, Opera Mini, pretty much almost everything in both mobile and desktop platform.)
[+] fmstephe|13 years ago|reply
As an honourable mention, while trying out various ssh terminals for my chromebook I did try this

https://github.com/liftoff/GateOne

That is a nifty and fun ssh client, but my poor chromebook struggled to render fast enough. Quite cool for a slightly more powerful PC though.

[+] gurkendoktor|13 years ago|reply
Can you feel the ssh key press delay? It should be noticable on 3G. Or is there something between you and vim that makes it asynchronous? That's my biggest question mark since I don't have super-fast WiFi everywhere I go, and you mention 3G too.
[+] rtdp|13 years ago|reply
thanks for reply and excited to know !!

So, development works pretty well if you have a good wifi connection.

Its just matter that we need to have good ssh client, where vim will work asyn and will push only for saves. I guess this way, development will be good in bit bad net-connections as well.

[+] tikhonj|13 years ago|reply
Check out Ymacs[1], which is an Emacs clone written in JavaScript. If you're already familiar with Emacs, it could be a decent substitute. If you're not familiar with Emacs, now is a good time to learn and Ymacs is also good because (I think) it's easy to customize in JavaScript.

[1]: http://www.ymacs.org/

Just something to consider as far as editors go.

[+] ponyous|13 years ago|reply
I asked friend who bought Chromebook same question. He is also a web developer (Mainly frontend). He said it definitely isn't like normal PC but there are still good alternatives. He mentioned http://shiftedit.net/. I would paste all e-mails but unfortunately they are slovenian. If you have any specific question just ask.
[+] rtdp|13 years ago|reply
Does chromebook have a shell where i can ssh to my servers ? I mean, i have seen ssh apps for chorme browser and those work with chromebook, but its still browser.

I just need a browser- which chromebook has and a shell - just two things i need for everyday development.

[+] alexhawdon|13 years ago|reply
Not specifically a Chromebook thing but I've also used ShiftEdit quite happily for a few web projects. There's also Cloud9 which looks good.
[+] ok_craig|13 years ago|reply
I have one and sometimes I program personal projects on it in Cloud9. (c9.io) I think it's pretty cool, but my actual work requires me to run eclipse and photoshop. Plus it isn't as powerful as I'd like for full-time use. But I'm excited to see where they go.
[+] kimar|13 years ago|reply
You should also check out Cloud IDE (http://cloud-ide.com). It supports a few different languages, integrates with Git, and lets you deploy to different PaaS.