You can BYO ChromeOS devices too which make great thin terminals to a remote workstation or cloud VM. I have a whole bunch from dogfooding preproduction Chromebooks.
We had a Sparcstation somewhere in the office being used as a mail server and nothing else. I don't recall how but I managed to SMB or NFS mount a directory so that I could edit code on my piddly little desktop but compile it on the Sparc. First time Java really worked as advertised for me.
Saved me loads of time and let me iterate on ideas that I don't think I or my boss would have had the patience for otherwise.
I'm not entirely keen on language servers, but those would be another area where distributed computing could come in handy. I think what might be missing though is a multitenant version. Everyone on my team has a duplicate model of our dependencies loaded into Webstorm and it's a pig.
Aside, but I 100% believe most developers of user-facing programs should be forced to use their app on a slow computer/phone with a slow internet connection before being able to ship it.
I decided at the very start of my career, before Google, to use a laptop at the primary interface and only use workstation / dev environment / etc. remotely. That way I have the same working experience at my desk, at a cafe, on my desk at home. The only thing that changes is the number and size of monitors. It's worked out really well, and during the COVID era it only got better due to investments in the remote workflows.
I wouldn't even notice if my VM lost internet access and root.
> It seems so weird to me to want to use Linux on the desktop. This is not The Year.
It seems so weird to me everybody considering their Windows or Mac as desktop ;)
It has been “the year” for Linux on the desktop for the last 10 years, even more so if you use Emacs as your WM.
Why? I've used it for many years and still like it very much. I use Windows too, but I do most of my work in Linux. Why would this be weird?
SSH disconnects are still annoying. And mosh/tmux/screen don't do it for me.
I can only infer that you're suggesting people would only want to use Macbooks? Setting aside the fact that that is wrong, you don't make any argument as to why that would be.
gLinux laptops are OK I guess? I dunno. Every time I've tried to use Linux as my main interface, it's been crashy and confusing. Maybe it's gotten better since the last time I tried.
All my dev work, personal, and internet while I work. KVM to swap. External screens.
Strict separation of work and life. No key logging like the work system. No fillers.