I do nearly all my work on remote machines, writing code in Vim over SSH. Could chromeOS work for someone like me? Is there a decent terminal app for chromeOS? I don't want a PuTTY-like utility that allows me to open sessions; I'm looking for a tabbed terminal that allows me to run basic linux commands locally and ssh into remote machines...
I use a system called Crouton[1] that installs a full Linux (Ubuntu or Debian currently) in a chroot (so that it still uses the Chromebook's kernel and x11 config). It works extremely well for my development needs. I do Python, JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and Clojure. The only real downside is that my particular Chromebook, an Acer C7 with a new SSD and 16GB of RAM, is still only a dual core Celeron. That makes some things awkward (starting the JVM for leiningen when I do Clojure/ClojureScript takes more seconds (around 20) than I'd like)). Using a jedi integration (Python code introspection, refactoring, execution) for Vim is also really slow when first loading Python into a buffer (the solution, never leave my vim, is acceptable to me). To be fair, neither of these things were exactly instant even on my former i7-based Retina Macbook Pro.
Long story short, I can alt+ctrl+shift+f2 and get to an Ubuntu install where I have XFCE installed and access to a real xterm + tmux + Skype. It has all of my dev tools (c compiler, python, jvm) and can even do Android development. I can alt+ctrl+shift+f2 and go back to normal Chromebook stuff. I use Chrome plus a special plugin in ChromeOS that lets ChromeOS and my Crouton/Ubuntu install share a clipboard. Combined with Chrome's normal syncing, I sometimes forget which environment I'm in when browsing the web.
If you can follow some instructions and want a cheap dev laptop that is no fuss for the basics, I'd recommend a similar setup. These days, I'd probably go for the 14" HP, although I haven't checked to make sure I could upgrade the HDD and RAM to acceptable specs.
Look into the SecureShell chrome extension. I use a mac basically like a chromebook, using just chrome+SecureShell, and I do all my real work on a remote linux box through ssh. I do everything through SecureShell now...no more terminal or iterm. Chromoting is useful, too, if for some reason I need to use the GUI on said remote linux box, but this is rare.
I do a lot of remote work with my chromebook, their basic terminal "app" is pretty nice, but I installed crouton (ubuntu) along side chromeOS and it works beautifully for me.
There is, in fact, a terminal app. It's not very advanced though (i.e. doesn't support tabs), but I use tmux and it solves most of the issues (tmux has its own version of "tabs" and even lets you split your window horizontally/vertically)
