I’m experimenting with an idea. I bought a Mac Mini M1 early this year, but I’ve wanted to have something I could use away from my desk. I considered getting a new Mac laptop to replace my 2014 one that’s in need of a new battery. I also considered getting an iPad with a keyboard. But I decided to try out a Chromebook.

There are lots of things I’m not thrilled about with a Chromebook. For one, it’s by Google. I’ve tried to avoid them in many ways over the years, so getting a Chromebook gives me an icky feeling. Second, it’s not a full computer so I figured I’d be missing out on having a full machine I could program on. I actually assumed I wouldn’t be able to write my weeknotes on it since I need Markdown, Hugo, and Ruby.

However, I remembered I had beta access to GitHub Codespaces. I started one up for my blog repo, and it magically worked. I ran rake weeknotes:new, and it created the new post for me. I’m now typing this weeknote on a Chromebook in VS Code in my browser. Wild.

And as I was typing, I was given the option to click a button and “install” this Codespace. It put an icon in my tray at the bottom, so I’m assuming I can just click it and get to writing.

More on the Chromebook

I bought a Pixelbook Go. It’s on the pricier side of Chromebooks, but it is a device specifically designed to be a Chromebook for moving around. It had good reviews, so I gave it a try. It’s thin, light, and suppose to have great battery life, which were the things I was going for. I’m going to give it a few days to see if it’s a good fit.

I’ve been writing a lot lately. I’ve purchased several writing tools over the years. Lately, though, I’ve been using Google Docs to write, which is where I got the idea of a Chromebook. I was wanting a laptop to use for writing and to let me write around the family rather than hide away in my office upstairs.

Notes

  • We watched The River Runner documentary. I can’t imagine kayaking some of those rivers.
  • S3 of What We Do in the Shadows came out, which we’re excited about.
  • I finished watching The Battered Bastards of Baseball.