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Chromebooks are actually great dev environments already --better than most of what I've seen on android. If you're in developer mode (a one time key combo at b

by abeyer 10y ago

Chromebooks are actually great dev environments already --better than most of what I've seen on android. If you're in developer mode (a one time key combo at boot, or a hardware switch under a cover on older machines), you can just ctrl-alt-T and 'shell' and you're in bash w/ the ability to sudo. If you want a more complete userland, crouton[1] will bootstrap an ubuntu setup in a chroot and you can apt-get away, plus it will give you X11 and some integration between that and the native chromeos stuff. I've used a couple chromebooks as my primary laptop doing dev work for ~5 years now. The only time I ever carry a bigger machine is if I have specific tasks that need really big chunks of memory and/or disk. [1] https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

millstone 10y ago
One problem with Crouton is that you're reliant on Google for the kernel and drivers. When Google decides to stop tracking upstream, you're on your own. For example, I found that I couldn't run XBMC on an older ChromeOS device without building my own kernel and forward porting Google's changes, which I failed to do. If I decide to buy a Linux laptop, I'd get a non-ChromeOS device.
- abeyer 10y ago
  Yup, that's true. I wouldn't go that route for media or HTPC type use. It hasn't been a problem for me, for development use, as kernel dependencies aren't common in your typical stable of editor/compiler/interpreter/IDE/etc... The only real limitations I've hit for development are when you want to run local tests that require a container or VM system, where you do start worrying about kernel and drivers. But that wouldn't be terribly practical anyway, since the hardware (other than the pixel) is just too low-end to handle that kind of use well, in general. Most (all?) chromebooks also support unlocking the bootloader which would allow you to install a stock linux distro running directly on the hardware, but you're right...at that point you lose all the benefits of chromeos, and might as well look at low-end pc laptops instead.
pekk 10y ago
Why use Android as a point of comparison for dev environments, when making a better dev environment than that isn't exactly a high bar?
- abeyer 10y ago
  Because that's what the comment I replied to was talking about -- using android tools on chromeos to create a dev env. Like you say, the android tools aren't great, so it would probably be a step backwards from what you already get w/ chromeos, which is what I was trying to point out.

by abeyer 10y ago

millstone 10y ago

One problem with Crouton is that you're reliant on Google for the kernel and drivers. When Google decides to stop tracking upstream, you're on your own. For example, I found that I couldn't run XBMC on an older ChromeOS device without building my own kernel and forward porting Google's changes, which I failed to do. If I decide to buy a Linux laptop, I'd get a non-ChromeOS device.

abeyer 10y ago
Yup, that's true. I wouldn't go that route for media or HTPC type use. It hasn't been a problem for me, for development use, as kernel dependencies aren't common in your typical stable of editor/compiler/interpreter/IDE/etc... The only real limitations I've hit for development are when you want to run local tests that require a container or VM system, where you do start worrying about kernel and drivers. But that wouldn't be terribly practical anyway, since the hardware (other than the pixel) is just too low-end to handle that kind of use well, in general. Most (all?) chromebooks also support unlocking the bootloader which would allow you to install a stock linux distro running directly on the hardware, but you're right...at that point you lose all the benefits of chromeos, and might as well look at low-end pc laptops instead.

pekk 10y ago

Why use Android as a point of comparison for dev environments, when making a better dev environment than that isn't exactly a high bar?

abeyer 10y ago
Because that's what the comment I replied to was talking about -- using android tools on chromeos to create a dev env. Like you say, the android tools aren't great, so it would probably be a step backwards from what you already get w/ chromeos, which is what I was trying to point out.