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Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

"For Chromebooks" is rather misleading. It would be better titled, "For ARM-based Linux distros". The setup installation includes the following:

    Download crouton.
    Create a chroot on the local device based on Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr).
    Install Visual Studio Code into the chroot.
    Install git into the chroot.

So it's not natively compiled for Chromebooks as a Chrome/Android app. Instead you're just installing crouton and then putting Ubuntu onto it. With all due respect to these guys, crouton has been around for some years[0]: I had it installed on my Samsung ARM Chromebook in 2012 and used it for coding.

It's also worth noting that putting your Chromebook into Developer Mode will wipe the device, so if you decide to do this, make sure all your local files are backed up first.

[0]: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton

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There were a couple of options for doing this in a way that may not have required a chroot, but the bigger issue then is: how do you install Ruby? or Python? or [whatever]?

I'd think it fairly necessary to have a full Linux environment (and ideally good package support) underneath the IDE in order to actually work with the editor. And it works quite well in practice due to the integrated terminal that's running full Ubuntu (as you've said, due to the chroot).

The comment is fair, but I've tried to explain this as clearly as I can in both the website and the installation script itself (there's a confirmation explaining exactly what will be done and what that means, although I obviously try to keep it as straightforward as I can without obscuring anything - at least not intentionally).

The native part refers to the architecture. It executes natively on ARM, rather than through some kind of emulation solution (like QEMU) that would make it untenable in practice (I've been dogfooding the scripts with this for some time while trying to polish the process).

The instructions also mention that you can just install into an existing chroot as a standard apt-get install call for anyone that has one set up already and knows what they're doing, although it should also work side-by-side.

I'll review the website in light of your comments though, to see if there's anywhere this can be made clearer!

There is some precedence for porting Javascript-written editors to Chrome - a port of Brackets as a Chrome application exists, not requiring Crouton. See Quickfire: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quickfire/mobpfffd...

I played with this several months ago, and don't currently use it. Seems like development has stopped, and a recent support comment seems to indicate that ChromeOS updates have rendered it non-working.

Seems like a more flexible solution would be to use VSCode in a tab on a Chromebook to edit code in a working directory on a another machine? For example, it could be a Raspberry Pi if you want.

> but the bigger issue then is: how do you install Ruby? or Python? or [whatever]?

The answer should be pursued through Android. Apps for ChromeOS are officially second class. Chrome the browser, a window manager and a basic file manager seems to be all ChromeOS is ever going to get. The rest should be done through Android to make your efforts future-proof

I really hate seeing posts on Chromebook forums where some asks of they can do 'X' on a Chromebook and the answer is "Yes" but then goes on the mention crouton. It's like going on a Mac forum and saying that yes your Mac can do that if you install Windows.

I was super excited to see this post, until I realized I've been doing what it suggests for 6 months now. I use my Pixel as my primary development machine, but it's only because of Linux. I've learned a lot though, and enjoy it.

Yeah, I use a Chromebook as my main browsing machine and I've been so disappointed with it's capabilities. For some reason, I thought Google would make some efforts to make the ChromeOS a tool for developers on-the-go, but they've just seemed to shit on the entire lineup except for the Pixel.

Probably the last Google-backed device I'll buy.

Install a Linux distro on it?

That's what I use it for now. Thought I mentioned that, whoops.

Yeah, I just run ubuntu on it.

I don't know why you ever thought it was for developers. Clearly not having coreutils makes it a non-starter ad a development machine.

ChromeOS was always about being a thin-client. A better kiosk OS, if you will.

With that being said, I use Chrome OS for development. I have a DigitalOcean server that I SSH into using the excellent Secure Shell app, do all of my development there using tmux/vim and test in a browser tab. If you already like this workflow (some don't, I understand), then Chrome OS works very well for web development.

? The Pixel doesn't do anything that other Chromebooks can't. (But the screen is amazing). Though, with a bit of work it makes a great Linux laptop.

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