Web Development on the Chromebook

A few months ago, I purchased a Samsung Chromebook as an impulse buy, at $200 it was well within tolerable walking around money. And while not the greatest machine, it definitely earned its place on my coffee table as my go-to couch surfing machine -- checking HN or writing a quick answer on Stackoverflow. But it is a sluggish machine; even when using it with Nitrous.io, it didn't "feel" right. While the battery life of its ARM processor is great, it doesn't pack much of the proverbial punch.

Last month, I pre-ordered the [Acer C720](http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c720-chrom...) and have been using it for the past few weeks. For me, it has resolved almost all the issues that I had with the ARM-based Chromebook. It's a joy to use with Nitrous.io. It benefits from the better processor and more RAM, especially when running under "load", I tend to have several tabs open between nitrous, several documentation sites, and streaming audio while I work. It's still small and light, and at $250 still essentially a disposable laptop. For me, its become my ideal "walking-around-town" development machine that was my macbook pro.

While, sometimes I miss being able to fire up photoshop or use sublime, it's worked out great for me...