Setting Up a Local Development Environment in Chrome OS

This isn't setting up a local dev environment in Chrome OS. This is setting up a local dev environment on a Chromebook. I was hoping this would show some new way to actually develop in Chrome OS itself, just saying "boot into Ubuntu!" is a lazy answer.

Having just set this up, I'm really digging it.<p>If you're unsure whether or not a Chromebook is the right system for you, check out the specs[0]. Note that the Chromebook isn't extremely powerful, but that is not the product's goal.<p>Back to Ubuntu/Chrome: Rather than install Unity (which I actually don't mind on some systems), I opted for the actual crouton dev team's recommendation of XFCE[1].<p>XFCE is made for an underwhelming environment, and its performance is better than what Unity would probably offer.<p>You can in fact switch between Chrome-os/Ubuntu with 3 or 4 key presses, depending on your chromebook model. Your install likely won't come with vim, git, etc. installed as ujeezy noted, but if you're familiar with gnu/linux, you already know you what you want from your environment.<p>I, like many of you, have a couple of computers to lug around: Work laptop (windows), Macbook (expensive shiny development tool). Being that I really have come to enjoy the macbook's battery life, even when using lots of high-resource tools/windows, I'm not sure where this chromebook will fit in. Breaking my macbook scares me, but so does being without it.<p>If you have a chromebook, definitely try this out. I was expecting to have to deal with lots of issues, but the install was extremely smooth (other than the downloads coming in at 20-30kb/s).<p>Things to note:<p>* Make sure you read Crouton[1]'s readme - there are a few potential 'gotcha's in there.<p>* Disable XFCE or Unity's screensaver.<p>* As ujeezy noted, you'll need to install vim/emacs, git, gcc, etc.<p>* While nice, and amazing for what it is, this will probably not replace your default dev environment, unless you exclusively use programs that aren't resource intensive, and/or only exist in terminal.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/samsung-chromebook.html#ss-cb" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/samsung-chromeb...</a><p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton</a>

The real question is why have we devs been forced to bastardize this OS since 2009 in order to actually use the darn thing? Where's the innovation Google? Where's the Chromebook for Devs? Because I bet if we looked at the numbers, we're the only ones buying these things anyways.

I love my chromebook so I'm fairly interested in doing this. I have two questions: 1) How does having a chroot environment affect battery life? Does access to the Ubuntu tools cost a ton of battery? 2) After I go into developer mode can I still get updates to Chrome OS?

Is there a way to run a distro other than Ubuntu (Fedora, Arch)?<p>I am planning to buy the x86 version, so it seems like it should be possible to install any distro on it. Is Crouton/ Chrubuntu for ARM version?

Vim version referenced is horrifically out of date.<p>Their dev trunk is pretty stable, it'd be good if he'd update the post.

I know the OP was interested in unix tools, but I've been wondering could you build a lightweight IDE or dev toolset in chrome itself? It looks like action.io and cloud9 have been some nice browser based tools, but what about building something using google native client that runs locally in chrome?

What about something like sublime text 2? You can't really use it via a shell, so would you end up running in a full Ubuntu install anyways?

You should try Action.IO: <a href="https://www.action.io/" rel="nofollow">https://www.action.io/</a>

I dont get it , for the price of a chromebook , one can get a netbook with a full linux plateform to install whatever stack one needs (and ides like netbeans/eclipse/sublimetext2...) , what's the point being a chromebook for development purposes ? ( it is a question not a rant against chromebooks )