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Comment by mikenikles | Hacker News Reader

Local first, cloud optional is the only way (IMHO) we're going to get people off their local laptop development setups.

We need to support local dev environments first, with the exact same config a developer can then move to the cloud.

See https://github.com/jetpack-io/devbox for how this can be achieved and https://www.mikenikles.com/blog/dev-environments-in-the-clou... for my thoughts after 3 years of working in this space.

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Cloud dev envs do not require millisecond latency. Typing is done locally. Latency only comes in at the times like when you go to open up a new file which isn't locally cached on your machine. Having to wait 200 ms for a file to open isn't so bad.

I was wondering how big pain is latency when using VDIs for example. Microsoft thinks 150 ms is OK: "If all frames in a single second take between 150 ms and 300 ms, the service marks it as "Okay." [1]" But putting this in perspective where in gaming this would be unusable, or even when looking at Apple Vision Pro claims of 12 ms needed to make things meaningfully usable. What are your opinions? [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/conn...

Just to add some points of reference:

- VR headsets typically need very low frame times so that they can account for you moving your head and not give you motion sickness. The typical threshold is ~10ms, but it can be improved with good reprojection tech

- Older LCD TVs often added >50ms of input lag, although this is much less of a problem now, but this was enough for lots of people in the 360/PS3 era of consoles

IMO it's not about latency but consistency -- when I'm in flow, I need my tools working right now, without interruption

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