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Chromebook can make a surprisingly sweet machine for a developer

83 points by mzehrer 13y ago

Zenst 13y ago
Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life. But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use. Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5) for battery life and that can do ssh as well, sadly though IRDA and serial are not the cutting edge comm's standards. Have been a few that come close, but just not jumped out at me. That said I'm still awaiting for something of that form factor with some modern love. That all said if Mr Linux Linus is happy with a chromebook as a dev machince, then they must be doing something right, though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget.
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  > Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! Agreed, and if you put Ubuntu on it (or the Chromebook), doesn't this all become much easier with its remote login from the login page feature? Not sure if any other distros have that too, but regardless, surely it'd be much easier? >though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget. According to the article a MacBook Air used to fill this role, totally agree that both are crazy expensive for that.
- protomyth 13y ago
  It's a true shame no manufacture has released a modern version of the Psion 5mx. If there is a market for Linux / BSD portables, that would fill it nicely.
- mtgx 13y ago
  A cheap netbook of the same price will invariably be worse in some way, since the Windows license cost is included, so they've had to cut corners somewhere, and it might not show in the specs list, but in the build quality of the device, its thinness/lightness, the quality of the display, etc
  - untog 13y ago
    Not necessarily. Dell sold Ubuntu laptops that cost more than the Windows one, because they made money by charging software companies to have their software bundled with Windows. There's also the issue of scale- a production run of Linux laptops would sell considerably less than Windows ones.
  - Zenst 13y ago
    Since the tablet fad, netbooks have stagnated and some lovely models for sale at silly cheap prices. As for this windows TAX, well, you are not oblidged to use it and the one I got was half the price of a Chromebook, what more can one say.
johnbellone 13y ago
I am not sure I actually see myself doing development on this hardware. Maybe it is due to the type of work I am doing now and the requirement of the sheer amount of data/services running locally. But I wouldn't mind using this essentially as an operating environment with a few tmux sessions open. The more that I tinker with OpenStack and generally setting up virtualized services I am beginning to be sway towards never necessarily needing to buy a desktop machine again. Up until a few months ago my machines sat around just to collect dust. But I see a future where a Chromebook style machine can easily connect to a VPN with an OpenStack cloud powering development. Its actually quite damn easy now if you invest the time. The only reason I do not do this now is that I have been unable to find a machine with decent enough resolution and great battery life. But I've told myself that my next laptop (right now a 15 inch MacBook Pro) will be something significantly smaller. I just hope that the retina displays catch up with the rest of the industry.
- seabrookmx 13y ago
  The Samsung Chromebooks get 6-7hours of battery life. You aren't getting Retina/Pixel resolution with the cheap Chromebook, but my Series 5 is 1280 x 800, which is the same resolution as the 13" Macbook Pro's (pre-retina) were. This is quite decent considering the average 15.6" cheapo laptop runs 1366 x 768.
hollerith 13y ago
This is the $250 ARM Chromebook he is writing about BTW.
jkldotio 13y ago
I don't see the point in using a crippled operating system when it will prevent you from quickly editing a low res screen cast or editing an image in the GIMP. Machines in that price range have enough performance to do some of these tasks even if they're not optimal for them. If I'm on the move away from a bigger system I might still need to do it though, so not having that capacity just because of someone's "in the cloud" dream is silly. It's already bad enough that Google maims some of the Nexus line by disabling tethering. Android is also inflexible in many ways regarding having a local easy to use file system etc. I personally can't wait to get off Android and onto Ubuntu mobile or Firefox OS.
- bobbydavid 13y ago
  As stated in the article, the "point" is to have the same functionality for a fraction of the cost. You can still run image editing software or whatever you'd run on your workstation using NX. That's somewhat inconvenient, but then it boots faster with no malware, and you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. So it's a trade-off, not a "crippling" as you've put it. Some folks, like the author, barely notice a difference in quality yet save $1000, and that feels good.
  - dj2stein9 13y ago
    you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. That's what scares me the most. Unless I have the option of not using Google's infrastructure, and can run my own "ChromeOS Storage/Auth Server" on a computer of my choice, then I'd never trust the OS. Google is expecting a surreal amount of trust that no single corporation should be given.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - jkldotio 13y ago
    I can get the same functionality in terms of hardware at the more or less same cost, certainly not $1000 more as you claim. A 1.7gighz ARM or the other versions aren't more powerful than a 1.6gighz or higher Atom processor at the same price point. And I can run a real operating system on that hardware with no problems. My laptop boots in less than 10 seconds and I trust Ubuntu just as much as a Chromebook for security. If you are worried about the security of local files you can encrypt your drive, very simply in the last few versions of Ubuntu but I don't bother, if needs be. None of the points you make in favour of the Chromebook are exclusive to it, what's exclusive to it though is you can't get access to the vast flexibility of a local system and have to go through NX. That's all fine for people who only do back-end stuff, or Google if they want their employees to "dog food" living in the cloud, but for someone who wants to be able to do normal everyday things like edit images, test locally or any of the many other advantages of a flexible system it doesn't really cut it. If there were locally running JavaScript equivalents for image editing and everything else we'd be a bit closer to feature parity but I still wouldn't see the major attraction.
gregulrajani 13y ago
I have a chroot'ed Samsung Intel Chromebook that makes an OK development machine for small projects using Eclipse/Java/H2/Jetty. If I fully rooted it the extra ram would make the machine a bit more useful. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/ https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/
- seabrookmx 13y ago
  crouton runs surprisingly well. I've noticed a few hiccups though - I still can't get my trackpad to work smoothly on my original Series 5.
jbeard4 13y ago
I'd be curious to hear more about installing chrooted Debian/Ubuntu to provide a full GNU userland locally. I'm still not quite sure what this would look like, or what the limitations might be.
- andrus 13y ago
  Crouton is awesome—you get a chrooted Ubuntu accessible via crosh. You have CLI access with `sudo enter-chroot` and can launch XFCE4 with `sudo startxfce4`. I never use XFCE, but if you do, you can seamlessly toggle between ChromeOS and XFCE with a keyboard shortcut (e.g. a YouTube video playing in ChromeOS remains playing if you switch to XFCE).
  - workbench 13y ago
    Can you not replace ChromeOS completely? Seems a bit of a hacky mess if not TBH
    - andrus 13y ago
      Crouton is actually a breeze to use. While the crouton script itself might have a few hacks under-the-hood, the end result is quite slick. Everything just installs under `/usr/local/chroots'. Removing one of your potentially many chrooted installs is just an `rm -rf'. I prefer keeping ChromeOS primary and just opening a crosh window to expose one of these chroots (a browser and terminal is similar to my work environment on a Mac). Granted, XFCE can act weird if you choose to launch it, but I've never needed that functionality. If you do want to completely replace ChromeOS, there's Chrubuntu.
      - workbench 13y ago
        Crouton is interesting and I can see why people would like it. It's just I couldn't invest long term in something that requires effort on Googles part to support as they could drop support at any point. Haven't heard of Chrubuntu I'll definitely check that out thanks!
rwmj 13y ago
I used one (running Fedora 17) for a couple of weeks as a light development machine, and wrote about it here: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/some-thoughts-after-2-5-weeks-with-the-samsung-chromebook/#content https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/some-thoughts-after-2-... Note I was using it for disconnected development on the road, not as a fancy ssh client as in the article. The upshot is that it's not too bad as a development machine. But you definitely want to root it and put something other than ChromeOS on it. Fedora, Ubuntu and other regular Linux distros are available.
cpursley 13y ago
With Nitrous.io (previously action.io) https://www.nitrous.io/#aio https://www.nitrous.io/#aio any device with a large enough screen and a modern web browser makes an excellent dev machine. Been using it for the past several weeks. For web apps, it's the future. Basically no configuration and you get a linux environment that is similar to most production environments.
jerrya 13y ago
What I want is a Chromebook that can use a Nexus 10 (or two), or Nexus 7 as an additional display.
- idiot900 13y ago
  Not quite the same thing, but you can get a Bluetooth keyboard for your Nexus 10.
vittore 13y ago
I just don't understand this attempts to use shitty and cheap piece of hardware to do development. You are not coding for food, right? Why bother yourself trying to use something that will make you so counterproductive? Need powerful something - get desktop. Need something slim and sexy - get f* macbookair Need both - get pro Need internet connection on the go - get nexus if you use tablet. Oh don't need it -use tetering on your phone. It is expensive - get Clear device Yes, it will need more money than shitty chromebook, but you are making money with it, so it's worth _investing_ in your everyday companion a little. What I'm missing?
- ineedtosleep 13y ago
  What boggles my mind is that articles where people code X that does Y where Y is completely "useless" to 90%+ of the population get all the touchy feelies from HN, but when it comes to something laptop/netbook/desktop/cheap workstation related, it turns into a slamfest like this and the current top comment. Why is that? What are /you/ missing? You're missing that he got a piece of hardware that's relatively closed down and made it useful him. Yes, none of that revolves around you, so tough luck. The end.
- dirkgently 13y ago
  What you are missing is that he is not an apple fanboi.
- psn 13y ago
  First thing you might be missing: there are probably a pile of folks on hacker news who don't have money. Students. People who have invested their life savings in their startup. People who work part time and see the world in the rest of their time. People who are spending their money on making sure their mum gets treatment for cancer. For these folks, getting the most out of the kit they can afford is important. And yes, thats a condescending statement aimed at you, but its not more condescending than "why don't you drop a couple grand on this problem?" Second thing you might be missing: computers have marched forward in spec, yet most of us don't need tons of power in any dimension of the spec. My cheap chromebook ($200 or so) has 2G of ram. I went though uni with about of order of magnitude less ram, and was happy. The 16G ssd it ships with is sufficient for anything that isn't movies, music or photos. The ssd probably has more iops than 2005 era hard drives :). So the chromebook is low powered compared to the desktops of today, but its pretty powerful compared, to, for example, the computers google or facebook used to get off the ground. Third thing: cloud compute. If I find myself needing thousands of hours of cpu time, I can get that on EC2 or similar. And its cheaper for everyone to rent cpu time when needed on a server in a well cooled warehouse somewhere where power is cheap, rather than have idle cpus connected up to city power grids. I own a cheap chromebook (and I'm amused by you saying cheap in a negative way :)), and its fine for what it is. Its slim. Its not as sexy* as your mother, but hey. It has a debian chroot with all the normal tools on it. I don't worry about it being damaged or lost as much as I would if it was 5x as expensive. If I spent the money on a macbook air, I'd be buying a machine to run chrome and a terminal window, and all I'd be getting for my extra 800 dollars would be a nicer screen and track pad. * I do wonder about people who describe computers as sexy.
sxp 13y ago
Dropping down to dev mode to get access to ssh is overkill. I suggest https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... which lets you run SSH as a normal Chrome extension.
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  You can just ssh via crosh without having to install anything extra. ssh in crosh does not require developer mode to be on.
  - andrus 13y ago
    Also, last I checked, Secure Shell relies on an NaCl plugin incompatible with the Samsung ARM Chromebook.
    - drivebyacct2 13y ago
      Their PNaCl timeline is sure been delayed and slow...
      - andrus 13y ago
        I'm surprised the ARM Chromebook shipped without any mechanism for indicating which apps in the Chrome Web Store are compatible with it (maybe they expected PNaCl to be completed?). Moreover, I had no idea what NaCl was until Secure Shell stalled and I tracked down the bug on a mailing list. There's an enable "Portable Native Client" (PNaCl) in about:flags (dev. branch, at least), but I have little idea if this would fix the problem. This kind of troubleshooting is OK for power users, but seems at odds with the type of users ChromeOS wants to attract. Still love this machine, though.
    - packetslave 13y ago
      ARM support for Secure Shell was released in 0.8.8 in December.
sramsay 13y ago
I'm so tempted to get one of these. With the shell plugin, I have access to my very high-powered servers, and Chrome comes with a nice development environment. Besides that, it's cheap and light -- a perfect roadkit. The only problem I see is the keyboard. I hate typing on netbook keyboards. I don't even like the keyboard on the Macbook Air. Maybe I'd get used to it after awhile?
- habosa 13y ago
  I love the keyboard on my Chomebook however it's very similar to a Macbook Pro keyboard (which is similar to Macbook Air)
jebblue 13y ago
>> Right out of the box, things work quite well. The Secure Shell browser extension can give you an xterm-compliant terminal directly in a browser tab. >> Be sure to install the Crosh Window browser extension. It allows you to pull the browser-tab terminal out into its own window. Without it, many important key bindings will be swallowed by the browser. Or just buy a new laptop, delete Windows and install Ubuntu and have a real machine with real software, not browser based similarities. edits: fixing my brain's desire to misspell buy.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  Can you (or any of the others making this same argument) explain to the rest of us why one bunch of bits running in environment a is 'real' and another bunch running in environment b is 'fake' (or 'unreal', or 'toy', or whatever disparaging term you care to use)? Last time I looked, JavaScript IS turing-complete.
  - jebblue 13y ago
    I can't speak for others, when I was a kid, computers were powerful machines locked away and operated by seemingly mythical people. When I started reading about them I realized quickly there's nothing mythical, magical or mysterious about them at all. Then I wondered why isn't this power available to anyone, to everyone? It dawned on me in a flash, power and control. I keep the cloud at an arm's distance, those computing resources are not owned or controlled by me. The cloud, given full control like a ChromeBook, takes all of the control away from me.
habosa 13y ago
I say this on every Chromebook thread but I'll say it again because I see a lot of the same negativity as usual: the Samsung ARM Chromebook is f*cking awesome. It's $250 so there's no argument about buying X or Y netbook instead, you can barely get anything with a keyboard that browses the internet for that price. Also for that price you get 2 (3?) years of 100GB on Google Drive and 12 Gogo WiFi passes, which together are already worth over $250. So you can throw the device in the trash and still come out on top. Now to the computer itself: First, the battery life is awesome, 6.5 hours of solid use (WiFi model) and since it turns on from cold in ~7 seconds you can turn it off between sessions and not lose any power at all. If that's too long for you just close the lid, you'll lose about 1% per hour but everything resumes instantly when you open it (and I do mean INSTANTLY). Second, the hardware is really excellent for the price. The keyboard is my favorite laptop keyboard out there (even against my MBP) and the trackpad is second only to Apple devices imo. It's the same weight/size as a MacBook Air but maybe 0.2" thicker. The only hardware downsides are the plastic chassis and the screen's somewhat bad viewing angles. Third, it runs most of what you need right out of the box. I don't even have my in developer mode, you don't need that to use Google's Secure Shell and Remote Desktop Chrome extensions. It has an Offline version of Google Drive so you can keep your most important documents local and everything syncs when you're connected. Fourth, it's stress-free. Because everything is synchronized to the cloud and the hardware is so cheap, you never have to worry about this thing. If it breaks (which it won't easily), just go to your nearest Best Buy, drop $250, and sign in with you Google account and you'll be back exactly where you left off (even down to the tabs you had open). I really can't recommend this device more highly. It's definitely not the right device for full-time development but as a companion to a larger laptop or a desktop it's a perfect second machine and much more useful than an iPad or Transformer-style tablet (I've had both).
rorrr2 13y ago
Chromebook Pixel is $1,300. For that amount of money you can get a really really nice laptop. It won't have a super-high-res screen, but it will have a proper high-end i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 500GB SSD, video card enough to play modern games, etc. I don't know about you, but performance matters for me. I don't want to wait twice as long for a DB to import, or a SQL query to run.
macspoofing 13y ago
It's a sweet machine because you're able to use ssh ... using a special "developer" boot option? Come on people.
- packetslave 13y ago
  SSH does not require a "special developer boot option". You install the SecureShell chrome extension and you're done.
  - macspoofing 13y ago
    Yeah, I got that there is a SSH chrome extension, though the author opted for the boot option with a "real" ssh (his words, not mine).
  - tmzt 13y ago
    It's actually included on the ARM Chromebook now, I was able to launch it in Best Buy after search for the instructions on my phone (it's Ctrl-Alt-T). The author is referring to launching normal ssh instead of the version included in cros shell which has a weird runtime configuration menu (much like ftp) and some limitations. You do need dev mode to start bash even as a non-privileged user unfortunately.
workbench 13y ago
> sweet Is a massive exaggeration

83 points by mzehrer 13y ago

Zenst 13y ago

Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! I personaly snapped up a nice Asus netbook with built in 3g modem, wifi and bluetooth and cuts a lovely battery life. But a nice cheap chromebook is probably the best option for most unless you can find a cheap netbook of comparable use. Though ironicly none have beat my old psion 5mx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5) for battery life and that can do ssh as well, sadly though IRDA and serial are not the cutting edge comm's standards. Have been a few that come close, but just not jumped out at me. That said I'm still awaiting for something of that form factor with some modern love. That all said if Mr Linux Linus is happy with a chromebook as a dev machince, then they must be doing something right, though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget.

mcintyre1994 13y ago
> Any cheap old laptop works just as well if not better if you just want to use ssh into another box! Agreed, and if you put Ubuntu on it (or the Chromebook), doesn't this all become much easier with its remote login from the login page feature? Not sure if any other distros have that too, but regardless, surely it'd be much easier? >though a Chrome pixel just for SSH would be fiscal perversion on my budget. According to the article a MacBook Air used to fill this role, totally agree that both are crazy expensive for that.
protomyth 13y ago
It's a true shame no manufacture has released a modern version of the Psion 5mx. If there is a market for Linux / BSD portables, that would fill it nicely.
mtgx 13y ago
A cheap netbook of the same price will invariably be worse in some way, since the Windows license cost is included, so they've had to cut corners somewhere, and it might not show in the specs list, but in the build quality of the device, its thinness/lightness, the quality of the display, etc
- untog 13y ago
  Not necessarily. Dell sold Ubuntu laptops that cost more than the Windows one, because they made money by charging software companies to have their software bundled with Windows. There's also the issue of scale- a production run of Linux laptops would sell considerably less than Windows ones.
- Zenst 13y ago
  Since the tablet fad, netbooks have stagnated and some lovely models for sale at silly cheap prices. As for this windows TAX, well, you are not oblidged to use it and the one I got was half the price of a Chromebook, what more can one say.

johnbellone 13y ago

I am not sure I actually see myself doing development on this hardware. Maybe it is due to the type of work I am doing now and the requirement of the sheer amount of data/services running locally. But I wouldn't mind using this essentially as an operating environment with a few tmux sessions open. The more that I tinker with OpenStack and generally setting up virtualized services I am beginning to be sway towards never necessarily needing to buy a desktop machine again. Up until a few months ago my machines sat around just to collect dust. But I see a future where a Chromebook style machine can easily connect to a VPN with an OpenStack cloud powering development. Its actually quite damn easy now if you invest the time. The only reason I do not do this now is that I have been unable to find a machine with decent enough resolution and great battery life. But I've told myself that my next laptop (right now a 15 inch MacBook Pro) will be something significantly smaller. I just hope that the retina displays catch up with the rest of the industry.

seabrookmx 13y ago
The Samsung Chromebooks get 6-7hours of battery life. You aren't getting Retina/Pixel resolution with the cheap Chromebook, but my Series 5 is 1280 x 800, which is the same resolution as the 13" Macbook Pro's (pre-retina) were. This is quite decent considering the average 15.6" cheapo laptop runs 1366 x 768.

hollerith 13y ago

This is the $250 ARM Chromebook he is writing about BTW.

jkldotio 13y ago

I don't see the point in using a crippled operating system when it will prevent you from quickly editing a low res screen cast or editing an image in the GIMP. Machines in that price range have enough performance to do some of these tasks even if they're not optimal for them. If I'm on the move away from a bigger system I might still need to do it though, so not having that capacity just because of someone's "in the cloud" dream is silly. It's already bad enough that Google maims some of the Nexus line by disabling tethering. Android is also inflexible in many ways regarding having a local easy to use file system etc. I personally can't wait to get off Android and onto Ubuntu mobile or Firefox OS.

bobbydavid 13y ago
As stated in the article, the "point" is to have the same functionality for a fraction of the cost. You can still run image editing software or whatever you'd run on your workstation using NX. That's somewhat inconvenient, but then it boots faster with no malware, and you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. So it's a trade-off, not a "crippling" as you've put it. Some folks, like the author, barely notice a difference in quality yet save $1000, and that feels good.
- dj2stein9 13y ago
  you are guaranteed nothing important is only stored locally. That's what scares me the most. Unless I have the option of not using Google's infrastructure, and can run my own "ChromeOS Storage/Auth Server" on a computer of my choice, then I'd never trust the OS. Google is expecting a surreal amount of trust that no single corporation should be given.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- jkldotio 13y ago
  I can get the same functionality in terms of hardware at the more or less same cost, certainly not $1000 more as you claim. A 1.7gighz ARM or the other versions aren't more powerful than a 1.6gighz or higher Atom processor at the same price point. And I can run a real operating system on that hardware with no problems. My laptop boots in less than 10 seconds and I trust Ubuntu just as much as a Chromebook for security. If you are worried about the security of local files you can encrypt your drive, very simply in the last few versions of Ubuntu but I don't bother, if needs be. None of the points you make in favour of the Chromebook are exclusive to it, what's exclusive to it though is you can't get access to the vast flexibility of a local system and have to go through NX. That's all fine for people who only do back-end stuff, or Google if they want their employees to "dog food" living in the cloud, but for someone who wants to be able to do normal everyday things like edit images, test locally or any of the many other advantages of a flexible system it doesn't really cut it. If there were locally running JavaScript equivalents for image editing and everything else we'd be a bit closer to feature parity but I still wouldn't see the major attraction.

gregulrajani 13y ago

I have a chroot'ed Samsung Intel Chromebook that makes an OK development machine for small projects using Eclipse/Java/H2/Jetty. If I fully rooted it the extra ram would make the machine a bit more useful. https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/ https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/wiki/

seabrookmx 13y ago
crouton runs surprisingly well. I've noticed a few hiccups though - I still can't get my trackpad to work smoothly on my original Series 5.

jbeard4 13y ago

I'd be curious to hear more about installing chrooted Debian/Ubuntu to provide a full GNU userland locally. I'm still not quite sure what this would look like, or what the limitations might be.

andrus 13y ago
Crouton is awesome—you get a chrooted Ubuntu accessible via crosh. You have CLI access with `sudo enter-chroot` and can launch XFCE4 with `sudo startxfce4`. I never use XFCE, but if you do, you can seamlessly toggle between ChromeOS and XFCE with a keyboard shortcut (e.g. a YouTube video playing in ChromeOS remains playing if you switch to XFCE).
- workbench 13y ago
  Can you not replace ChromeOS completely? Seems a bit of a hacky mess if not TBH
  - andrus 13y ago
    Crouton is actually a breeze to use. While the crouton script itself might have a few hacks under-the-hood, the end result is quite slick. Everything just installs under `/usr/local/chroots'. Removing one of your potentially many chrooted installs is just an `rm -rf'. I prefer keeping ChromeOS primary and just opening a crosh window to expose one of these chroots (a browser and terminal is similar to my work environment on a Mac). Granted, XFCE can act weird if you choose to launch it, but I've never needed that functionality. If you do want to completely replace ChromeOS, there's Chrubuntu.
    - workbench 13y ago
      Crouton is interesting and I can see why people would like it. It's just I couldn't invest long term in something that requires effort on Googles part to support as they could drop support at any point. Haven't heard of Chrubuntu I'll definitely check that out thanks!

rwmj 13y ago

I used one (running Fedora 17) for a couple of weeks as a light development machine, and wrote about it here: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/some-thoughts-after-2-5-weeks-with-the-samsung-chromebook/#content https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/some-thoughts-after-2-... Note I was using it for disconnected development on the road, not as a fancy ssh client as in the article. The upshot is that it's not too bad as a development machine. But you definitely want to root it and put something other than ChromeOS on it. Fedora, Ubuntu and other regular Linux distros are available.

cpursley 13y ago

With Nitrous.io (previously action.io) https://www.nitrous.io/#aio https://www.nitrous.io/#aio any device with a large enough screen and a modern web browser makes an excellent dev machine. Been using it for the past several weeks. For web apps, it's the future. Basically no configuration and you get a linux environment that is similar to most production environments.

jerrya 13y ago

What I want is a Chromebook that can use a Nexus 10 (or two), or Nexus 7 as an additional display.

idiot900 13y ago
Not quite the same thing, but you can get a Bluetooth keyboard for your Nexus 10.

vittore 13y ago

I just don't understand this attempts to use shitty and cheap piece of hardware to do development. You are not coding for food, right? Why bother yourself trying to use something that will make you so counterproductive? Need powerful something - get desktop. Need something slim and sexy - get f* macbookair Need both - get pro Need internet connection on the go - get nexus if you use tablet. Oh don't need it -use tetering on your phone. It is expensive - get Clear device Yes, it will need more money than shitty chromebook, but you are making money with it, so it's worth _investing_ in your everyday companion a little. What I'm missing?

ineedtosleep 13y ago
What boggles my mind is that articles where people code X that does Y where Y is completely "useless" to 90%+ of the population get all the touchy feelies from HN, but when it comes to something laptop/netbook/desktop/cheap workstation related, it turns into a slamfest like this and the current top comment. Why is that? What are /you/ missing? You're missing that he got a piece of hardware that's relatively closed down and made it useful him. Yes, none of that revolves around you, so tough luck. The end.
dirkgently 13y ago
What you are missing is that he is not an apple fanboi.
psn 13y ago
First thing you might be missing: there are probably a pile of folks on hacker news who don't have money. Students. People who have invested their life savings in their startup. People who work part time and see the world in the rest of their time. People who are spending their money on making sure their mum gets treatment for cancer. For these folks, getting the most out of the kit they can afford is important. And yes, thats a condescending statement aimed at you, but its not more condescending than "why don't you drop a couple grand on this problem?" Second thing you might be missing: computers have marched forward in spec, yet most of us don't need tons of power in any dimension of the spec. My cheap chromebook ($200 or so) has 2G of ram. I went though uni with about of order of magnitude less ram, and was happy. The 16G ssd it ships with is sufficient for anything that isn't movies, music or photos. The ssd probably has more iops than 2005 era hard drives :). So the chromebook is low powered compared to the desktops of today, but its pretty powerful compared, to, for example, the computers google or facebook used to get off the ground. Third thing: cloud compute. If I find myself needing thousands of hours of cpu time, I can get that on EC2 or similar. And its cheaper for everyone to rent cpu time when needed on a server in a well cooled warehouse somewhere where power is cheap, rather than have idle cpus connected up to city power grids. I own a cheap chromebook (and I'm amused by you saying cheap in a negative way :)), and its fine for what it is. Its slim. Its not as sexy* as your mother, but hey. It has a debian chroot with all the normal tools on it. I don't worry about it being damaged or lost as much as I would if it was 5x as expensive. If I spent the money on a macbook air, I'd be buying a machine to run chrome and a terminal window, and all I'd be getting for my extra 800 dollars would be a nicer screen and track pad. * I do wonder about people who describe computers as sexy.

sxp 13y ago

Dropping down to dev mode to get access to ssh is overkill. I suggest https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec... which lets you run SSH as a normal Chrome extension.

georgemcbay 13y ago
You can just ssh via crosh without having to install anything extra. ssh in crosh does not require developer mode to be on.
- andrus 13y ago
  Also, last I checked, Secure Shell relies on an NaCl plugin incompatible with the Samsung ARM Chromebook.
  - drivebyacct2 13y ago
    Their PNaCl timeline is sure been delayed and slow...
    - andrus 13y ago
      I'm surprised the ARM Chromebook shipped without any mechanism for indicating which apps in the Chrome Web Store are compatible with it (maybe they expected PNaCl to be completed?). Moreover, I had no idea what NaCl was until Secure Shell stalled and I tracked down the bug on a mailing list. There's an enable "Portable Native Client" (PNaCl) in about:flags (dev. branch, at least), but I have little idea if this would fix the problem. This kind of troubleshooting is OK for power users, but seems at odds with the type of users ChromeOS wants to attract. Still love this machine, though.
  - packetslave 13y ago
    ARM support for Secure Shell was released in 0.8.8 in December.

sramsay 13y ago

I'm so tempted to get one of these. With the shell plugin, I have access to my very high-powered servers, and Chrome comes with a nice development environment. Besides that, it's cheap and light -- a perfect roadkit. The only problem I see is the keyboard. I hate typing on netbook keyboards. I don't even like the keyboard on the Macbook Air. Maybe I'd get used to it after awhile?

habosa 13y ago
I love the keyboard on my Chomebook however it's very similar to a Macbook Pro keyboard (which is similar to Macbook Air)

jebblue 13y ago

>> Right out of the box, things work quite well. The Secure Shell browser extension can give you an xterm-compliant terminal directly in a browser tab. >> Be sure to install the Crosh Window browser extension. It allows you to pull the browser-tab terminal out into its own window. Without it, many important key bindings will be swallowed by the browser. Or just buy a new laptop, delete Windows and install Ubuntu and have a real machine with real software, not browser based similarities. edits: fixing my brain's desire to misspell buy.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
Can you (or any of the others making this same argument) explain to the rest of us why one bunch of bits running in environment a is 'real' and another bunch running in environment b is 'fake' (or 'unreal', or 'toy', or whatever disparaging term you care to use)? Last time I looked, JavaScript IS turing-complete.
- jebblue 13y ago
  I can't speak for others, when I was a kid, computers were powerful machines locked away and operated by seemingly mythical people. When I started reading about them I realized quickly there's nothing mythical, magical or mysterious about them at all. Then I wondered why isn't this power available to anyone, to everyone? It dawned on me in a flash, power and control. I keep the cloud at an arm's distance, those computing resources are not owned or controlled by me. The cloud, given full control like a ChromeBook, takes all of the control away from me.

habosa 13y ago

I say this on every Chromebook thread but I'll say it again because I see a lot of the same negativity as usual: the Samsung ARM Chromebook is f*cking awesome. It's $250 so there's no argument about buying X or Y netbook instead, you can barely get anything with a keyboard that browses the internet for that price. Also for that price you get 2 (3?) years of 100GB on Google Drive and 12 Gogo WiFi passes, which together are already worth over $250. So you can throw the device in the trash and still come out on top. Now to the computer itself: First, the battery life is awesome, 6.5 hours of solid use (WiFi model) and since it turns on from cold in ~7 seconds you can turn it off between sessions and not lose any power at all. If that's too long for you just close the lid, you'll lose about 1% per hour but everything resumes instantly when you open it (and I do mean INSTANTLY). Second, the hardware is really excellent for the price. The keyboard is my favorite laptop keyboard out there (even against my MBP) and the trackpad is second only to Apple devices imo. It's the same weight/size as a MacBook Air but maybe 0.2" thicker. The only hardware downsides are the plastic chassis and the screen's somewhat bad viewing angles. Third, it runs most of what you need right out of the box. I don't even have my in developer mode, you don't need that to use Google's Secure Shell and Remote Desktop Chrome extensions. It has an Offline version of Google Drive so you can keep your most important documents local and everything syncs when you're connected. Fourth, it's stress-free. Because everything is synchronized to the cloud and the hardware is so cheap, you never have to worry about this thing. If it breaks (which it won't easily), just go to your nearest Best Buy, drop $250, and sign in with you Google account and you'll be back exactly where you left off (even down to the tabs you had open). I really can't recommend this device more highly. It's definitely not the right device for full-time development but as a companion to a larger laptop or a desktop it's a perfect second machine and much more useful than an iPad or Transformer-style tablet (I've had both).

rorrr2 13y ago

Chromebook Pixel is $1,300. For that amount of money you can get a really really nice laptop. It won't have a super-high-res screen, but it will have a proper high-end i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 500GB SSD, video card enough to play modern games, etc. I don't know about you, but performance matters for me. I don't want to wait twice as long for a DB to import, or a SQL query to run.

macspoofing 13y ago

It's a sweet machine because you're able to use ssh ... using a special "developer" boot option? Come on people.

packetslave 13y ago
SSH does not require a "special developer boot option". You install the SecureShell chrome extension and you're done.
- macspoofing 13y ago
  Yeah, I got that there is a SSH chrome extension, though the author opted for the boot option with a "real" ssh (his words, not mine).
- tmzt 13y ago
  It's actually included on the ARM Chromebook now, I was able to launch it in Best Buy after search for the instructions on my phone (it's Ctrl-Alt-T). The author is referring to launching normal ssh instead of the version included in cros shell which has a weird runtime configuration menu (much like ftp) and some limitations. You do need dev mode to start bash even as a non-privileged user unfortunately.

workbench 13y ago

> sweet Is a massive exaggeration