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What are the pros/come versus using a mature online editor such as Cloud9, that supports direct terminal access to the backend instance and FTP/SFTP support? Th

What are the pros/come versus using a mature online editor such as Cloud9, that supports direct terminal access to the backend instance and FTP/SFTP support? Though I will admit I was disappointed when AWS acquired Cloud9.

amasad 8y ago
Good question. Repl.it is all about instantness, you should be able to get a REPL really fast[0]. If you want to host a webserver you should be able to do it quickly from the same interface[1], if you want to share your work then that should also be possible[2]. You could code and ship a small webserver on Repl.it faster than you can sign up for Cloud9. Repl.it is also what's no called "Serverless" in that it's logically always available and you don't have to worry about the underlying resources. We're not doing because we wanted to ride a fad, we've always done it this way, we think that's the future of computing. When we build Repl.it we always think what's a "web native" way to do online coding. We think it's a) instant! b) social c) simple yet powerful. The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native."
- throwaway342 8y ago
  > The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native." Maybe it's because giving away cloud services for free is not a sustainable business model.
  - amasad 8y ago
    All of those companies charged for their product and had enterprise plans ;)
    - throwaway872 8y ago
      Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the companies tried to monetize. Koding, in particular, went through pretty much exactly the same cycle as Repl.it a few years ago. They started out getting tons of users by giving cloud servers away for free, targeted mainly at children/education market. Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them. Then, they tried to become a cloud infrastructure company[1] and created a distributed filesystem product[2], which seems to be exactly your plan as well! As it turns out, the educational users were only there because going on a free website is easier than installing Python on your computer, so when Koding started trying to charge for stuff, no one bought it. [1]: https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f740ce8 https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f74... [2]: https://www.koding.com/docs/kd https://www.koding.com/docs/kd
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - nodesocket 8y ago
        while I agree with your analysis, why the throwaway accounts? It seems a bit suspicious.
        deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - amasad 8y ago
        1. We've been arond longer than most in this space (since 2011) 2. We've been profitable and bootstrapping for a long time. We have paying users like Facebook, Google, and Stripe, Hackreactor, HCT (biggest college in the UAE) and so many more: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing 3. We're probably like 5-10x Koding users base. 4. You keep creating accounts to spread misinformation. Go find something better to do.
        8y ago
dopeboy 8y ago
I personally see repl.it less as a replacement for a development environment (c9's aim) and more as a quick way to deploy, run, and illustrate a piece of code. It is perfect for school assignments, running quick trials, and general explatory-esque learning.

amasad 8y ago

Good question. Repl.it is all about instantness, you should be able to get a REPL really fast[0]. If you want to host a webserver you should be able to do it quickly from the same interface[1], if you want to share your work then that should also be possible[2]. You could code and ship a small webserver on Repl.it faster than you can sign up for Cloud9. Repl.it is also what's no called "Serverless" in that it's logically always available and you don't have to worry about the underlying resources. We're not doing because we wanted to ride a fad, we've always done it this way, we think that's the future of computing. When we build Repl.it we always think what's a "web native" way to do online coding. We think it's a) instant! b) social c) simple yet powerful. The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native."

throwaway342 8y ago
> The previous generation of online IDEs -- C9, Nitrous, Koding -- were awesome, yet most pivoted or shutdown. It's good to ask why that is? We think it might be that they were not "web native." Maybe it's because giving away cloud services for free is not a sustainable business model.
- amasad 8y ago
  All of those companies charged for their product and had enterprise plans ;)
  - throwaway872 8y ago
    Sure, but no one used them -- just like Repl.it, pretty much all of their monthly active users were only there for the free plan, and they left as soon as the companies tried to monetize. Koding, in particular, went through pretty much exactly the same cycle as Repl.it a few years ago. They started out getting tons of users by giving cloud servers away for free, targeted mainly at children/education market. Then they started selling premium plans for beefier servers, but no one bought them. Then, they tried to become a cloud infrastructure company[1] and created a distributed filesystem product[2], which seems to be exactly your plan as well! As it turns out, the educational users were only there because going on a free website is easier than installing Python on your computer, so when Koding started trying to charge for stuff, no one bought it. [1]: https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f740ce8 https://blog.koding.com/koding-is-not-an-online-ide-e2693f74... [2]: https://www.koding.com/docs/kd https://www.koding.com/docs/kd
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - nodesocket 8y ago
      while I agree with your analysis, why the throwaway accounts? It seems a bit suspicious.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
    - amasad 8y ago
      1. We've been arond longer than most in this space (since 2011) 2. We've been profitable and bootstrapping for a long time. We have paying users like Facebook, Google, and Stripe, Hackreactor, HCT (biggest college in the UAE) and so many more: https://repl.it/pricing https://repl.it/pricing 3. We're probably like 5-10x Koding users base. 4. You keep creating accounts to spread misinformation. Go find something better to do.
      - 8y ago

dopeboy 8y ago

I personally see repl.it less as a replacement for a development environment (c9's aim) and more as a quick way to deploy, run, and illustrate a piece of code. It is perfect for school assignments, running quick trials, and general explatory-esque learning.