Ask HN: Is ChromeOS a viable platform for serious development?
2 comments
It depends on your tooling needs and preferences.
I have used a Samsung Chromebook Plus and found that it worked well for web programming and scripting language development (Python and Perl).
Crostini makes it rather easy to use a surprising amount of Linux software with minimal effort. The biggest gotchas are:
1) the machine's processor which could limit software that only works on x86
2) some of the security restrictions of running in a container. Crostini might not be ideal if you are doing development that requires I/O to external devices (e.g. Android development over adb)
I have used a Samsung Chromebook Plus and found that it worked well for web programming and scripting language development (Python and Perl).
Crostini makes it rather easy to use a surprising amount of Linux software with minimal effort. The biggest gotchas are:
1) the machine's processor which could limit software that only works on x86
2) some of the security restrictions of running in a container. Crostini might not be ideal if you are doing development that requires I/O to external devices (e.g. Android development over adb)
I don't know if it's still true of current Chromebooks but they used to have a way to going into 'dev mode' that behaves like a normal OS.
Is there any reason for a developer to seriously consider a Chromebook as their main machine?