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Comment by jcun4128 | Hacker News Reader

From my experience try to get one that has a non-arm chip (intel) with regard to being able to install everything. I almost could install everything (crouton) but like VS Code wasn't supported.

I have this "fear" that my laptop will be stolen so I try to run everything off a USB (attached to my keys) so laptop is pretty much disposable assuming ~$100 in cost (used).

The ram/storage is a concern and I'm talking the junk 2GB 32GB setups. I picked up an ASUS TP200SA 11.6" transformer lately. I know not really able to do much on a 11.6" computer.

Still it's cool got all my stuff setup but can't have different stacks configured (not enough ram) so remote to develop. At least plain JS you can run by browser.

Just my thoughts,definitely got my two screen setup at home just bought a 22" 1080p monitor ohhh yeah.

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> I know not really able to do much on a 11.6"

Sir, have you heard the gospel of the Tiling Window Manager?

Really though, they are fantastic. You get ten times as much screen real estate at the tips of your fingers. My laptop has a 10" screen, it is fine. And let us not forget that Steve Jobs selected a 9" monitor for the Macintosh. How much more do you need :-)

So far the only software I miss is Darktable. They use a bunch of x86 assembly with no support for Arm.

With the garbage computers I use I definitely use i3. I don't know guess depends on screen resolution if you're concerned about UI (to be able to develop at common resolutions like 1366x768, 1920x1080, etc...

I personally prefer a larger screen mine eyes not so good I mean like 2-3 feet away from the screen is nice.

I'm not aware of DarkTable (don't know what it is)

VS Code should work fine with crouton. I've seen people running it on some older Chromebooks.

And if the container support lands soon, it might be possible to run developer tools like that without flipping the developer mode switch.

Really? I think if I remember right I bought this ARM version of a chromebook ("octacore" processor) and I wasn't able to install it so I had to use alternatives like Geany.

Ah, yes. ARM might be a problem, as there might not be VS Code builds available. There are tons of x86 Chromebooks out there, though.

Yeah I got unlucky I didn't even notice/think about it at the time.

I use vs-code on arm crouton so it is doable.

I use the headmelted build. looke like it has an actual website now https://code.headmelted.com/

Oh I was not aware of that cool!

your usb key might get stolen. Full disk encryption and regular backups probably buy better assurance.

Yeah I was thinking about that. If you do the "encrypt home folder" and did everything from home folder is that safer?

I'm not sure if I should try to use something like veracrypt to encrypt the OS.

Isn't the flashdrive protected by the OS password if you try to mount it as a drive and read the contents? Or no?(answer to this is no) I think I had that experience when trying to mount an OS hard drive and read contents.

I suppose if my keys/usb drive were stolen that would be a pretty bad day.

Now I'm concerned. My plan with the regular Windows OS, always run browsers in incognito mode.

Don't store credentials on computer, possibly pull code to work on it, push then delete but that might be nuts. Looks like full encryption may not be necessary but read about swap being potentially unsecure. Aye... I don't know.

Well since this computer is garbage I'll try the encrypted home folder method. Not sure about the swap aspect. And I don't think I'll be running any webserver stacks on this because of RAM so can try to just operate from my home directory.

Also, in my anecdotal experience, the most common failure mode of an USB stick seems to be going completely dead without any prior warning. So regular backups, definitely.

Yeah that sucks. I did read that the constant/read write does decrease life, maybe that was specific to SD cards but probably applies to USB as well.

I don't know... one of those things where you think too much about it... like what about general consumers with a password on their Windows/Mac computer... is that "secure"? I don't know.

You could potentially access that hard drive by taking it apart assuming it wasn't a soldered on storage device.

All flash-based memory devices have a limited number of write/erase cycles. Internal flash memories have more sophisticated strategies to extend memory life but they all rely on having spare memory available. Try not to go past 80% usage.

Thanks for the tip. Probably should have bought a larger USB 3.0 than 32GB, the Ultra Fits are nice by San Disk checked read/write pretty good (have numbers if needed)

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