I want to ditch my computer
If there is one thing I regret from my trip to QConRio is not having spent enough time talking with Felippe Nardi. He has been developing on a remote server for more than a year and he has enter to my list of “Heroes”.
To be honest it’s quite a large list that includes Michael J Fox for Back to the Future and Donatello Ninjas Turtle for kicking ass with a stick.
Felippe has done something I always wanted to do and, of course, I failed.
I work on a very nice macbook pro (which I love) attached to a stupid and very bad samsung monitor that never gets colors right (which I hate). And although I like working on a mac, been restricted to it doesn’t feel right.
When I travel, or if I want to work somewhere else I always need to cary my large 15’ computer. It’s the only place where I have all my tools, environments and files.
Felippe proves that your development machine can be on the cloud by replacing his laptop for an ipad for one year.
But what happen with designers. Can I replace my computer for a tablet or even a smart phone? The answer is not completely.
What have I done?
I’ve look into a normal workweek and learn about my workflow. I’ve listed the tools I use and filter them to know which ones are really necessary.
Then I look into online or ipad app replacements for them. And I found out that there is only one missing: Photoshop.
Although I would prefer to work on Sketch, the team I work on uses photoshop as a standard and we share psd files. I just couldn’t find an app replacement for desktop photoshop.
That been said there is no reason why I can’t start coding on virtual machines today. Well, actually there is, I don’t know ssh or vim good enough, or how to set a VM.
I see 2 solutions:
The first one is to learn how to do it. Which is probably what I am going to do because I am big nerd. I am sure I’ll brake things up in the process but we all know there is no better way to learn something than fixing what we’ve broken. Plus I get to use the command line, nothing feels better than successfully use the command line.
The second one is to use Cloud9. Which is awesome and easy to use, and although I should go for it I won’t… because well, I’ve just said it, I am a big nerd.
Practice makes the master
The best way to do something is by just doing it, that’s why I will stop writing now.
Thanks Felippe, you are a hero.