5 ms·

On the other hand, if a company wants to micromanage its employees there isn't much that will stop them. It's possible to get the advantages of remote IDEs with

by city41 5y ago

On the other hand, if a company wants to micromanage its employees there isn't much that will stop them. It's possible to get the advantages of remote IDEs without the managerial snooping, you just need to work for a company that trusts its employees. Not saying I prefer remote IDEs, just that they are more a symptom here and not the root cause.

maccard 5y ago
Right - an employer who is willing to use cloud based IDEs for that is willing to install something like Teramind to just record your screen and webcam.
- cultofmetatron 5y ago
  there are plenty of good reasons to use cloud ides. Biggest one being onboarding. New guy joins the team, we can spin up a ready to go system for them to hop in on and start browsing the codebase.
  - hermes8329 5y ago
    The last job I had I was thrown head first into things. Here's a guide on how to set up things. Use your ide of choice and you're off and running. You learn quite a bit on day one about the common flow you will be using immediately
    - maccard 5y ago
      Or you spend two days thrashing around because someone forgot to document a hidden dependency and nobody can remember what it is but everyone remembers that they hit it on their first day.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    If the "new guy" can't set up their own development environment in a reasonable amount of time, I think you need a stricter interview process.
    - spaetzleesser 5y ago
      I need around two days to set up a machine with all the necessary components and settings for our development environment. I wouldn't mind not having to do this for myself or new people.
      - smoldesu 5y ago
        Woof, most places I've ever worked has a script that I curl and then I'm set up. That said, I can't speak for the Mac users of the world. I've watched people make $30 an hour hunting down DMGs online...
        maccard 5y ago
        I work in games, where it's unlikely that you'll have the prerequisites installed for even setting up the dev environment, and where CLI usage is not common. Visual Studio licenses require interactive logins to microsoft accounts, perforce isn't installed by default (and is configured by the GUI often times, requiring things to be set up before syncing) and then syncing the content can take hours - my current projects' workspace is 42GB, and my last project was >150GB.
    - maccard 5y ago
      There's many reasons a "new guy" might not be able to set up a dev environment in what you might call a reasonable amount of time. - IT doesn't have the hardware ready - New team member is inexperienced in using an IDE, but the entire development environment setup is GUI based - New team member is inexperienced in a CLI, but entire dev environment setup is CLI based - New team member is working from home and hasn't received hardware for new start date on their first day - New team member is a fresh graduate, and needs actual mentoring and training - Link rot/outdated documentation on setting up a dev environment. - New person may not be technical (I work in games, we have artists) - Working from a location where internet speeds to download a toolchain, OS updates, docker images are slow.
zcw100 5y ago
and then I'll just write a script to use GitHub Copilot to write a bunch of crap during my down times and when I get back I'll just make another commit that says, "Changed my mind, refactoring...wheeeee".
908B64B197 5y ago
... why would they collect data at the IDE level when they have full access to the code repo? You can just take a look at the pull requests and commits.
- hollowturtle 5y ago
  IMO The amount of data an employer can gather through a remote IDE is way much than pull requests and commits
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    But how is that data useful? Dev A writes a lot of small commits and then re-orders them before pushing. Dev B has hours where his environment seems idle and then has a typing spree in between 9PM and 2AM. Dev C knows a lot more than A and B about the debugger.
hollowturtle 5y ago
I agree with you. I always turned down companies that do micromanagement and I was lucky enough to not get in touch with many during interviews. My point is my current employer trust me and I trust them. It took a while to build that trust however and I fear that, if remote IDEs becomes the norm, the abundance of data points would be abused and building trust for new hires could be more difficult.

by city41 5y ago

maccard 5y ago

Right - an employer who is willing to use cloud based IDEs for that is willing to install something like Teramind to just record your screen and webcam.

cultofmetatron 5y ago
there are plenty of good reasons to use cloud ides. Biggest one being onboarding. New guy joins the team, we can spin up a ready to go system for them to hop in on and start browsing the codebase.
- hermes8329 5y ago
  The last job I had I was thrown head first into things. Here's a guide on how to set up things. Use your ide of choice and you're off and running. You learn quite a bit on day one about the common flow you will be using immediately
  - maccard 5y ago
    Or you spend two days thrashing around because someone forgot to document a hidden dependency and nobody can remember what it is but everyone remembers that they hit it on their first day.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  If the "new guy" can't set up their own development environment in a reasonable amount of time, I think you need a stricter interview process.
  - spaetzleesser 5y ago
    I need around two days to set up a machine with all the necessary components and settings for our development environment. I wouldn't mind not having to do this for myself or new people.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      Woof, most places I've ever worked has a script that I curl and then I'm set up. That said, I can't speak for the Mac users of the world. I've watched people make $30 an hour hunting down DMGs online...
      - maccard 5y ago
        I work in games, where it's unlikely that you'll have the prerequisites installed for even setting up the dev environment, and where CLI usage is not common. Visual Studio licenses require interactive logins to microsoft accounts, perforce isn't installed by default (and is configured by the GUI often times, requiring things to be set up before syncing) and then syncing the content can take hours - my current projects' workspace is 42GB, and my last project was >150GB.
  - maccard 5y ago
    There's many reasons a "new guy" might not be able to set up a dev environment in what you might call a reasonable amount of time. - IT doesn't have the hardware ready - New team member is inexperienced in using an IDE, but the entire development environment setup is GUI based - New team member is inexperienced in a CLI, but entire dev environment setup is CLI based - New team member is working from home and hasn't received hardware for new start date on their first day - New team member is a fresh graduate, and needs actual mentoring and training - Link rot/outdated documentation on setting up a dev environment. - New person may not be technical (I work in games, we have artists) - Working from a location where internet speeds to download a toolchain, OS updates, docker images are slow.

zcw100 5y ago

and then I'll just write a script to use GitHub Copilot to write a bunch of crap during my down times and when I get back I'll just make another commit that says, "Changed my mind, refactoring...wheeeee".

908B64B197 5y ago

... why would they collect data at the IDE level when they have full access to the code repo? You can just take a look at the pull requests and commits.

hollowturtle 5y ago
IMO The amount of data an employer can gather through a remote IDE is way much than pull requests and commits
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  But how is that data useful? Dev A writes a lot of small commits and then re-orders them before pushing. Dev B has hours where his environment seems idle and then has a typing spree in between 9PM and 2AM. Dev C knows a lot more than A and B about the debugger.

hollowturtle 5y ago

I agree with you. I always turned down companies that do micromanagement and I was lucky enough to not get in touch with many during interviews. My point is my current employer trust me and I trust them. It took a while to build that trust however and I fear that, if remote IDEs becomes the norm, the abundance of data points would be abused and building trust for new hires could be more difficult.