Opinions on Samsung 550 Chromebook for Software Development?

[MeUnix]

Hello MacRumors Forum users,

I am new to this forum, so just taking a moment to say hello!

Anyways, time to get down to business and my reasoning for this thread. I am a software development student in need of a second laptop for developing programs on. I currently have a Macbook Alum 2009 that I do most of my work on currently. It is running Mountain Lion 10.8.4. I also have a Toshiba Satellite running Ubuntu 12.04 solely (this computer has its ups and downs, mainly used for media playback).

I have been looking for a low cost machine ($250-$400) that is works well for learning software developers, such as myself. Some of my professors and colleagues have suggested the Samsung 550 series Chromebook because of its aim to developers and its low cost. (Ideally, I would love to get a new iMac to suit my needs but that is out of my price range currently)

Thoughts, opinions, or suggestions??

Thanks!

 

[Technarchy]

The Chrome OS probably wont have all the tools you'll eventually want access to.

It basically runs everything as a browser based thin client.

You might want to research the tools you'll need which in turn will better dictate what hardware and OS you'll want to buy

 

[MeUnix]

Thanks for your input. I am going to research the tools I'll need and come up with a solution from there.

The Chrome OS probably wont have all the tools you'll eventually want access to.

It basically runs everything as a browser based thin client.

You might want to research the tools you'll need which in turn will better dictate what hardware and OS you'll want to buy

 

[ChazUK]

.

You can run Ubuntu on the Chrome book 5 550.
http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com

I was dual booting Ubuntu on a 32gb high speed SD card and Chrome Os on the internal storage.

Worked rather well for me.

 

[MeUnix]

You can run Ubuntu on the Chrome book 5 550.
http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com

I was dual booting Ubuntu on a 32gb high speed SD card and Chrome Os on the internal storage.

Worked rather well for me.

Yeah, that was one thing that caught my eye about the Chromebook. Ubuntu also offers most everything I see myself needing as far as development tools go. Being able to switch between Chrome OS and Ubuntu with a keyboard shortcut seems like a pretty quick/nice transition too. For the price and being able to put Ubuntu on the Chromebook, I think I will go with the Chromebook and install Ubuntu. If it ends up not meeting my needs for school, etc, at least I will have a sleek machine running Ubuntu