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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

There is an SSH app for Chrome. If you're "in the cloud" you have a computer to SSH to to code on. I do this with my Chromebook and it works fine; windowed Chrome apps don't steal keys anymore, so C-w is kill-region, not "close the tab".

There is also nothing stopping you from porting your favorite development tools to NaCl. This is something I'm planning to look into in the near future.

they were already using Google Docs and are fine with their crappy old netbook

Also, Google Docs looks really nice on a Macbook's retina display; significantly nicer than on a regular display. If the Pixel renders it the same way, it is a nicer experience.

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That seems like a reasonable use for a $250 computer, but using a $1300 computer with a 2560x1700 display as a dumb terminal is a bit of a waste.

Your average end-user is going to be pretty disappointed when they find out that all they can do with their expensive laptop is browse the internet.

It seems like the best use of this of this might be to run Linux, but if you accept a slightly lower resolution, you can get a pretty decent Thinkpad or Envy that has a lot more flexibility.

Paying an extra thousand dollars for a much improved experience of a device that you'll look at 5-10 hours a day for several years, doesn't seem to me to be out of line, even if it does act as a dumb terminal.

So why wouldn't you spend the few hundred more and get a MacBook Pro that isn't a dumb terminal ?

I was going to reply to this with a reasoned response, but below you've gotten silly and abusive, so enjoy yourself.

He/she may have come off as abusive. But I think that's actually a good question.

Yes, the resolution is great. But why would someone spend 1300 bucks on something that has great resolution just so they can ssh into something else? $500 maybe.

Seriously? Downvoted because I won't engage with someone being abusive?

Okay, fuck HN.

Whoever down-voted you was a dick, there's still more decent folk than dicks though, just ignore it. And, have some karma back, good point for discussion above.

> So why wouldn't you spend the few hundred more and get a MacBook Pro that isn't a dumb terminal ?

Chrome (both the browser and ChromeOS) have always been about making it so that "browser" and "dumb terminal" aren't at all the same thing. Certainly, I think its reasonable to say that its still at the point where, for many power users, it isn't suitable as a replacement for a traditional desktop OS.

But then, this is clearly aimed at early adopters that are more heavily into web-based tools than is generally the case, and who value a low-configuration means of getting to those tools.

The real answer is: depends on what $1000 means to you.

We have an idea what $1000 means to most people

Your average end user isnt as average as you think they are and can return the hardware if it does not meet their needs.

That's great but doesn't that mean there's no way of developing locally without installing Ubuntu on this thing?

> windowed Chrome apps don't steal keys anymore, so C-w is kill-region, not "close the tab".

I just realized this was really my only major complaint with ChromeOS and I now desire one.

> There is also nothing stopping you from porting your favorite development tools to NaCl.

Writing the code is only half the story. You also need to test that code and that means running the code on a target machine similar to your customer.

So unless you customer is also using a Chromebook this is going to make the testing much harder.

> Writing the code is only half the story. You also need to test that code and that means running the code on a target machine similar to your customer.

Right. And unless you are writing desktop software, that most likely means running it on a commodity physical or virtual servers, which aren't going to be your dev workstation.

For user-facing web software (as opposed to pure web services), ideal UI testing means having a wide variety of hardware/OS/browser combinations available for testing, but none of that needs to be your development workstation, either.

So neither of thos are strokes against using a Chromebook for development.

That's great for web developers, but what about those of us who are building desktop or embedded software?

Don't web developer's need access to image editing tools?

Most simple editing stuff, like what's in Picasa or Paint.Net/Pinta can be done in a ChromeOS app. My bigger concern is the CPU is overkill, and the GPU may be underkill... the latest/next gen Tegra chipset or similar with that screen would probably be a better combo at a lower price... Without a local OS, I'm afraid I wouldn't even consider this thing for over $800, at the price they are at, they're in Macbook territory, which although getting more locked down, is still much more versatile. Not to mention without VM host support.

No ssh-agent or forwarding. SSH console is usable but good 'ol terminals beats it hands down.

  > There is also nothing stopping you from porting your favorite development tools to NaCl.

You expect people to dedicate YEARS of their life porting development tools to a platform that in all likelihood is going to be dead soon ? Not happening.

   > If the Pixel renders it the same way, it is a nicer experience.

Sure. And if we are completely ignoring price/value then reading it on a supercomputer connected to a Sony 4K television would equally be better.

Or an iPad which cost over $1000. Google isn't really unique here.

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