*Hmmmm....
http://blog.unto.net/technology/mobile-devices-as-development-machines/
Link: Mobile devices as development machines » DeWitt Clinton.
Mobile devices as development machines
November 17th, 2008 by DeWitt Clinton
Tim O’Reilly tells the story of how Vic Gundotra, my manager at Google, came to the conclusion that the future of software lies somewhere in the intersection of mobile and cloud. Indeed it does, but I jokingly twittered back that we still need PCs — how else are we going to write our mobile and cloud apps?
But in truth we hardly need the heavyweight hardware under our desks to develop software even today. If anything, with a ubiquitous network connection (wifi where available, 3G where it is not), most of the heavy lifting can and should be run on compiler farms, not the desktop.
My own development workflow typically involves ssh’ing into a virtual instance from whatever client I’m on (a desktop, a laptop, etc) and running on a distributed compute cluster. (((Oh.)))
Depending on the task at hand even a full graphical IDE can be run remotely over technologies like NX. Or if you’re like me, ssh, screen, and emacs are all you need. And I believe we may even be headed for an era when the IDEs themselves are hosted applications, following the pattern established by email, text editors, and other traditional desktop applications.
So will this mean you can forgo the PC even for software development? Perhaps it does. Looking back, here were the specs on my first personal Linux box, as pieced together in 1994:
Dell Dimension
Intel Pentium @ 133 MHz
256MB RAM
1GB HDD
28.8 kbps modem
Slackware 2.0
Linux kernel 1.1.18
17″ Dell Trinitron CRT Monitor @ 1024×768I used this machine throughout my time as a CS undergrad, including the time off I took to write software for one of the first web companies (tripod.com).
By way of comparison, I now carry a HTC G1 device running Android:
HTC G1
Qualcomm MSM7201A @ 528 MHz
192 MB RAM / 256 MB ROM
1GB SSD
3G HSPA/WCDMA, GSM/GPRS/EDGE
802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
Android RC30
Linux kernel 2.6.25
3.2″ screen @ 320 x 480These stats are telling: (((oh yeah, you bet:))) The mobile devices in our pockets are more powerful and more connected in every way than the desktop machines we used to build the first generation of the web.
If we can just bridge the peripheral gap and get high resolution external displays, then there is truly nothing stopping us from forgoing the desktop completely in favor of a completely distributed development environment. (((Where's the @#$$@%& KEYBOARD? Your grandparents used QWERTY and your GRANDCHILDREN will also use QWERTY, you heretic!)))
