Ask HN: Are Chromebooks ready for serious development?

93 点作者 cesidio大约 7 年前

The question if we can comfortably do development without a MacBook has surfaced (unintended pun) many times here. Do you think that a Pixelbook (or any Chromebook) is finally ready for that? Google claims so:https://blog.google/products/chromebooks/linux-on-chromebooks/

37 条评论

tannhaeuser大约 7 年前

I don't understand the authors choice to limit himself to Apple or Google. You've been able to do development on Linux notebooks (and Windows notebooks, of course) since decades. I can absolutely recommend Dell (and ThinkPad, though not from personal experience) notebooks with Ubuntu preinstalled/officially supported. Or is the question if a Chromebook is en vogue to use this season at Starbucks?

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cagenut大约 7 年前

I've been using my Samsung Chromebook Plus for about a year now, and the answer is a fairly clear: no.Everything about it is just sluggish and laggy. The opposite of snappy. This is compounded by the fact that the AWS and GCP web interfaces I spend a lot of time in aren't exactly lightweight, but that's the work. The SSH client is similarly just ever so slightly off.In terms of just compatibility pains, don't even think about trying to print from the thing. Also, the copy/paste mechanics are probably not wrong per-se but just odd enough that I'm constantly frustrated by getting it wrong. Lastly, tons of basic stuff is just a hoop to jump through now, like setting up an adblocker or using a basic text editor. I can't even imagine how hard a full IDE would drag.Bear in mind this is the "plus" (arm) not the "pro" (x86). So maybe a Pixelbook with its full-i5 would get over the hurdle, but I guess my overall takeaway would be if your'e going to try a Chromebook make it an $800 one not a $450 one.

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crystaln大约 7 年前

A few months ago my Macbook Pro screen cracked while I was on a road trip. I thought I was screwed, but decided to try development on a Chromebook I had lying around.That was when I discovered AWS Cloud 9. After getting back my repaired fully maxed out latest model Macbook Pro, I have not even bothered to restore the hard drive. Developing on Cloud 9 has been wonderful. Having everything already in the cloud in a production-like environment has enormous advantages. Sure there are things I occasionally may miss or be unable to do on a Chromebook, though this has surprisingly not been an issue yet. The only Mac app I've wanted to use is Sketch.I have since upgraded to a Pixelbook, which has a gorgeous screen and a superior keyboard to a Macbook Pro. Touch screens with tablet mode make a computer enormously more versatile, serving as a tablet and media platform. If I lose or damage my Chromebook, I can continue development seemlessly on any computer, and log in to any Chromebook to recover my environment. Not having a $3000 laptop that I need to protect with my life, knowing that if I lose everything nothing is lost, is very liberating.I'm now transitioning off of iOS because of the lack of iMessage and the general pointlessness of using an iPhone with a Chromebook. Perhaps the biggest annoyance with iOS devices now is the disastrous Lightning connector, which adds so much complication to my cable environment. With a Pixel 2, I basically just need a few similar wall chargers and USB-C cables rather than a tangle of converters and cables.Surprising myself, I am now basically committed to a future on Chrome OS and Google's ecosystem. My only regret is not supporting Apple's respect for privacy, which is a substantial regret. I can only hope our Google and perhaps government some day will adopt Apple's ethical standards around privacy.Anyone want to buy a Macbook Pro? It really is a beautiful machine. I just don't seem to need it anymore.

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aerovistae大约 7 年前

"if we can comfortably do development without a MacBook"?What kind of premise is that for a question? You think this forum consists only of devs using Macbooks?

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ufmace大约 7 年前

I'd give it a qualified yes. Actually, I don't think "Chromebooks" is the right thing to ask about, that sounds like the physical hardware. That varies widely and can mostly run Linux, but that's not particularly special. We should ask if ChromeOS is ready for serious development.There's definitely some types of development work that just won't ever be practical in any way on a ChromeOS device. Developing iOS apps, Windows GUI apps, etc. Sure you can remote into a MacOS or Windows machine, but I don't think that counts. Anything requiring massive CPU power or RAM probably won't work too well either.There's also definitely plenty of ways of working productively that are very practical. Being remoted into a cloud IDE or SSH works fine. Not sure if that counts, but cloud work is the main idea of ChromeOS. You can install Linux side by side with Crouton, but going outside of ChromeOS seems beside the point. You can install something like Termux to get a pretty normal Linux interface without breaking ChromeOS security, but it does seem to have a couple of quirks.I've been using the Termux method for a while for side projects, and I've mostly been pleasantly surprised. Ruby, Python, C, Go, and Rust all run just fine, as does Vim, Tmux, SSH, Git, etc. Even installing local DB servers for web apps to test against seems to work fine. I have run into a couple of snags with various Ruby gems that I haven't gotten around to sorting out yet. The community around the setup is decent, but maybe not as big as you'd really want for something you "seriously develop" on. You can certainly get most types of development work done on it though.

chewz大约 7 年前

I couldn't stand anymore the stream of mistakes that macOS had become so I had installed ChromeOS as main OS on MacBook Pro.This is excellent combination. Mac is still superior hardware wise and ChromeOS is really nice graphical environment for web browsing, HBO Go, Spotify, YouTube, Google Play Music, Google Photos, Google Drive, Inbox etc. Anyway most of the time I spent inside terminal - crouton - Debian stretch - Vim - gcloud.I am enjoying the screen real estate of Mac's Retina display, touchpad, keyboard, battery life etc. On the other hand I am free from half-baked Apple software...I have a backup ChromeOS install on at least 6 years old x230. I have also wiped out Windows and installed ChromeOS on my Mom's i3 Lenovo laptop.So far so good..

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cesidio大约 7 年前

Support for Linux will enable you to create, test and run Android and web app for phones, tablets and laptops all on one Chromebook. Run popular editors, code in your favorite language and launch projects to Google Cloud with the command-line. Everything works directly on a Chromebook.Linux runs inside a virtual machine that was designed from scratch for Chromebooks. That means it starts in seconds and integrates completely with Chromebook features. Linux apps can start with a click of an icon, windows can be moved around, and files can be opened directly from apps

magoon大约 7 年前

I use a 12” MacBook and find it almost fully suitable for all development. Even with VMs and Docker containers, it’s great, but if anything misbehaves and gets it running too hot it can get sluggish. It’s unable to recover on its own because it has no fan.MacBook Pros can keep going even with CPU-abusive software. I don’t want to carry the extra weight so I choose the trade-off.But a Chromebook? I don’t understand the fascination with trying to develop on a more challenging dev platform that offers seemingly no advantage in terms of performance, mobility, price, or ergonomics.

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rectang大约 7 年前

It's a challenge to understand what information is leaking to Google when using ChromeOS and its cloud-first, always-logged-in design. As developers, we have a responsibility to our clients to keep their secrets.Many clients may not care -- imagine how much sensitive business data Slack has! But I'd want to make sure that my usage of ChromeOS was compatible with the client's policies, compared with a laptop running one of the more traditional self-contained operating systems.

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KaiserPro大约 7 年前

The pixelbook is rather expensive for what it is.I have a secondhand hp z620 (32 cores, 64 gigs of ram) and a 4k screen. Total cost < £700Whilst being about 4 years old, its still much much faster than a top end macbook. Yes its not portable. However I don't move around that much at work (If I do, everything is in git, or one can ssh in from another machine.)if I need to work from home, I have any old laptop to ssh in and work.being able to make -j 30 on a large project, is worth every penny, or not being able to move it about.

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carwyn大约 7 年前

It's been perfectly possible to do real work on a Chromebook using web IDEs, Crouton or tools like Termux for some time now. Similarly, Linux on laptops has been perfectly viable for many many years. I ditched my MacOS experiment around a decade ago after getting fed up of the terrible package management story. Fink and macports were trying their best fair play. Better with brew these days but still not in the same realm as the native Linux package tools and repositories. Similarly if you're using containers the native story is just smoother.

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keenerd大约 7 年前

I've been doing that for years: <a href="http://kmkeen.com/c100p-tweaks/" rel="nofollow">http://kmkeen.com/c100p-tweaks/</a>Development doesn't require any more CPU than word processing. You're type stuff up, and there is a pretty strict grammar check. I don't get why people why people want to run huge things on a laptop. It is way more economical to shell into a beefy server when you need big iron instead of carrying it with you.

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sz4kerto大约 7 年前

There's no general answer for this question.I cannot develop on web IDEs or on a box with only 16G RAM. Some others can. I need to be able to run many containerised service locally, others might only need a node.js instance.Depends on what you do. It's like asking whether a motorbike is suitable for your daily work. If you're a pizza delivery boy then yes. If you are transporting heavy machinery, then no.

ralmidani大约 7 年前

If you don't want to buy a MacBook (nor, I presume, a laptop with Windows preinstalled), do yourself a favor and get an Ubuntu machine from Dell or System76.

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mike-cardwell大约 7 年前

That link just says you can run Linux in a VM on a chromebook for development.You can also run Linux on any other laptop in the World. Natively, or in a VM.

JepZ大约 7 年前

@cesidio that greatly depends what 'development' means for you. I mean, if it means developing iOS apps then you probably still have all the trouble which you have when you are trying to develop anything for the Apple ecosystem without being part of it. For the Microsoft ecosystem it looks the same.But if development means to do web development you are just fine, as Linux is the best platform for that anyway. Other things, like resource intensive stuff (e.g. C compiling) might still be too much to do it comfortably on a Chromebook.

foodislove大约 7 年前

Yes. Most of the time, all you need is a basic computer and internet to SSH into a more powerful VM in the cloud. I don't host my dev stack on my computer so local computing power is mute. It's strange but a celeron chromebook is all I need.When I travel, I don't take my heavy Macbook Pro. I take my old Acer C720 because it has Bash, a Cloud IDE, and everything I need to code. Just in case I need to do more, I have KDE on chroot for when I need more tools.

llogiq大约 7 年前

I'm doing all my development on a HP Chromebook 13 G1. While the CPU is low-powered, and I since ditched the ChromeOS for a custom Linux, it's a fairly capable machine, and very cheap for what it offers.My recent 1-year review is on <a href="https://llogiq.github.io/2018/03/02/chromebook.html" rel="nofollow">https://llogiq.github.io/2018/03/02/chromebook.html</a>

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mcny大约 7 年前

I am typing this on a Chromebook that will soon get the ax. It is a Lenovo Thinkpad X131E. It came with a 16GB eMMC solid storage and a free SATA port. I had to open the computer and disassemble it down to the board (thankfully the documentation is very extensive) to flip the switch that allows me to install a real BIOS (or the coreboot EFI, that thing with the rabbit logo). I installed Fedora on it and now I can do everything on a Chromebook. I added a 500GB hard disk I had lying around but with SSD prices no longer climbing up, I am thinking about getting a 500GB SSD for this computer. Maybe I could even keep using the SSD after this chromebook dies.So in this sense, yes I am comfortable doing development on a chromebook but it really isn't chromebook anymore. It is a Linux machine at this point. The keyboard is a close approximation of a real Thinkpad and the computer was cheap enough that I don't mind throwing it in my backpack and using it on the train.

rajington大约 7 年前

Two months with the Pixelbook i7, don't regret investing that much on a Chromebook, which was my main concern. Kept the old MBP just in case and it's been just sitting there, even through tax season.Pretty happy with performance, Linux apps work well but still "feel" a little out of place. Very like how it runs Android apps, so much works but it's just the issues that DO come up that can be frustrating. If you're not ready for that experience then it might not make sense to switch your main dev machine.Doubt I'll ever buy a laptop bigger than this one ever again, but it is a little harder to dev directly on this, mainly bc of that MBP trackpad, but this keyboard is MUCH better.

mattbreeden大约 7 年前

I have a $300 (plus SSD price) Dell Chromebook 13 from a few years ago which I use <a href="https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton</a> on to run Ubuntu with i3. It's a wonderful machine for light web dev (I've never tried any really stressful development, I use my fuller spec'ed laptop for that). Great battery life, light, best keyboard I've used. I don't know how well it would work for 'serious' development depending on your field, but it's probably the best starter laptop for programming I could possibly imagine.

liveoneggs大约 7 年前

<a href="https://usesthis.com/interviews/junio.c.hamano/" rel="nofollow">https://usesthis.com/interviews/junio.c.hamano/</a> works for this guy but I guess he uses the terminal :)

headmelted大约 7 年前

There's a few options already, I've written about this exact question:<a href="https://headmelted.com/coding-on-a-chromebook-84335cce96c8" rel="nofollow">https://headmelted.com/coding-on-a-chromebook-84335cce96c8</a>This doesn't take in Crostini, which I'll be following up on - and I intend to rework the VS Code builds and scripts for ARM to use Crostini instead of Crouton, but everything discussed is still pretty much the state of play.I still think it's worth the extra couple of steps by far, but that's because I just don't have time in my life anymore for all the hassle Chrome OS saves me from.

hanse00大约 7 年前

Personally I've done development work on a Pixelbook for a while now (Using a cloud IDE), and I've enjoyed it greatly.If being able to run a Linux VM is what it takes for others to do the same, great.

paradroid大约 7 年前

I use a 2015 Chromebook Pixel.- Stand up an Amazon WorkSpace and RDP to it for Windows work - Use Android apps - Install Ubuntu using croutonThat's pretty much it. Use it all day every day.

cyberpanther大约 7 年前

You can use Termux on a Chromebook to run Linux already and develop. See termux.com and <a href="https://medium.com/digitalcrafts/exiting-vim-on-a-touch-screen-the-new-development-environment-frontier-d457fb89269f" rel="nofollow">https://medium.com/digitalcrafts/exiting-vim-on-a-touch-scre...</a>This is without going into dev too. You just need to enable android on your chromebook.

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swerveonem大约 7 年前

That is a funny question, I've been writing code for 10 years and have used a variety of hardware. At no point has the host OS limited my productivity. I even used an old ThinkPad with a broken trackpad for a while during a particularly poor period of my life. Once you learn to use the terminal and stop being a GUIwarrior, you will have an easier life.

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onion2k大约 7 年前

I do 'serious' development on a Chromebook, and a very low-spec one at that (Acer Chromebook 11, with an 11" screen and 2GB of ram). What's more, I do development in user mode rather than developer mode, without using Crostini. The thing is, very little of what I'm doing actually runs on the Chromebook itself. I use Codepen.io (which is awesome) for a lot of front-end dev work, which does SASS, Babel, etc on a remote server for me. I use Codenvy to do more complex things, again on a remote server. I do some Node and Python on the machine itself (using Termux), but that's very light-weight in terms of resources. It's still proper development though. The things I make end up on servers being used by thousands of people.I'd do frontend things on the machine itself if Chrome let me access localhost, but it doesn't. (Weirdly, Firefox for Android does, but that doesn't have any dev tools).The problem with asking whether Chromebooks are ready for 'serious' development is that development is a huge topic that covers everything from editing a config file in VIM to building a UI in XCode. You can't answer a yes or no to a question like that.tl;dr It's great but I wouldn't want to run Android Studio on it? My iMac struggles with that...

PascLeRasc大约 7 年前

Can anyone recommend a cheap used Chromebook to check out how development would be on it?

infinii大约 7 年前

Slightly OT but which development laptop has best keyboard? I can't stand my circa 2012 rMBP keyboard (and the newer ones are even worse). I'm guessing a Thinkpad?? But I can't find one with good battery, screen and weight.

Gys大约 7 年前

Only a Mac allows to compile for iOS plus MacOS. So there is little choice if you want to keep all options open.

shiado大约 7 年前

Chromebooks have been ready for serious development for a while now, provided the limited hardware can suffice. The last release of this was a year ago, so perhaps there are better options now? <a href="https://galliumos.org/" rel="nofollow">https://galliumos.org/</a>

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choadrocker大约 7 年前

With crouton, and now native linux support, absolutely

jacksmith21006大约 7 年前

Have a Pixel book and been using the new GNU/Linux support and supported everything thrown at it. Supports Docker, Wine, Eclipse, AS, and Steam.

mbid大约 7 年前

The hardware of every chromebook I know is enough to run a terminal emulator and a browser. You can install a gnu/linux distribution on most x86 based chromebooks. Gnu/linux is arguably better suited for "serious" development, so I don't understand the premise in the question.

RyJones大约 7 年前

I have the latest MacBook pro and the latest Pixel book. They keyboard on the MacBook is passable. The keyboard on the Pixel book is garbage. That the Pixel book can fold into a tablet is pretty nice.For me, the lackluster keyboard puts paid to the idea of developing on the Pixel book. However - as an interface to Google online services, it's great.

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yani大约 7 年前

Judging by your questions it sounds like you want an adventure and excitement in your life. You will get it all with the chromebook. You will be able to do everything with it. At the same time you will encounter issues that others havent yet. You will be on your own to solve them due to the low popularity of Chromebooks.