Is it possible to work on the new Chromebook as a developer?

Question

I saw the new Chromebook which seems great for the price and I thought it would be a good alternative for my personal use (mostly web, mail).

But as a web developer, I now I will also use it to work on my projects (mostly html/css/js, maybe some Dart. Ideally Python and Java too but maybe I'm asking too much).

So I was wondering if someone knew if it's possible to work as a developer on that new Chromebook, maybe install an IDE ? Maybe accessing the linux layer to install java ? vim ? eclipse ?

Thanks for your knowledge :)

Answer 1

First visit the Chrome Web Store and see if the browser-based tools will work for you. E.g. ShiftEdit, Cloud9, SourceLair, etc.

You can put the device into developer mode and access the more full-featured shell along with VIM.

Eclipse? Only if you install desktop Linux and then possibly only if using one of the Intel-based Chromebooks (less likely Eclipse will work on the ARM version).

Of course the alternative to developer mode/Linux is to Chrome Remote Desktop into a (Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.) machine which has all the developer tools you want.