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I use eclipse IDE for developing my GWT and android apps. I would like to transition to a chromebook for my main development computer, but I can't figure out how I would get eclipse "installed". There is no chrome app version of eclipse, at least not that I can find. I do see that there are other IDEs in the chrome store, but I don't think they would have all the nifty helper plugins that eclipse has for google developers. Anybody know if a chrome version of eclipse is coming? Do others share my desire to develop on a chrome book?

user1305454
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    I found this if you want to take a look: http://blog.tomtasche.at/2012/01/developing-on-chromebook-part-3-x.html – Marcelo Jul 10 '12 at 17:01

6 Answers6

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Eclipse is not coming for Chrome OS. You need a JVM to run it and one of the compatible desktops for the UI widgets. So you would have to escape from Chrome OS desktop into base Linux and somehow launch a regular Linux desktop (like GTK) to have any hope of running Eclipse. Also, a typical chromebook is far too underpowered to run a full IDE.

Here are some options to consider:

  1. Project Orion - A web based IDE from many of the same people who develop Eclipse. One of the goals is to enable Eclipse-like capabilities for platforms like iOS, Android, Chrome OS, etc. It has quite a few base IDE capabilities already, but not a lot of plugins just yet. Probably not going to see something as sophisticated as ADT for a while if ever. Google would have to implement Android emulators in JavaScript. Not an easy task.
  2. Run Eclipse on another machine and use a remote desktop from your chromebook.
  3. Run Eclipse Che on another machine or cloud server and use Chrome
Community
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Konstantin Komissarchik
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    Thanks @ngreen and KK. I also noticed Cloud IDE on the chrome store, which gets very good reviews, but I haven't tried it out. No google plugins, obviously – user1305454 Jul 10 '12 at 17:57
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    Orion is neat, especially when you run it local. Always connected is still future fiction – stwissel Feb 22 '13 at 02:33
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The most straightforward and transparent way I was able to do so was to do a combination of things (some of which was mentioned in previous answers):

  • install crouton (alongside an ubuntu chroot) - this is not dual booting but running Ubuntu side by side with Chrome OS just alternating between both windowing systems.

  • install crouton chrome extension & xiwi - this enables running the X11 windows in the ubuntu chroot as native Chrome OS windows that can be easily alternated into.

  • install a JDK inside the ubuntu chroot.

  • download, mount and execute eclipse-installer.

  • once the eclipse distribution of choice is installed, for ease I symlinked the main eclipse executable to /usr/local/bin/eclipse and am able to run it from Chrome OS via crouton/xiwi: sudo startxiwi eclipse

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like when done:

eclipse on chromeos via crouton and xiwi

Roberto Andrade
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Eclipse requires a JVM (maybe even a full-blown JDK), so there's no way to make it into a Chrome app. You could enable developer mode and try to install a Linux JDK since Chrome seems to be running Linux under the hood.

ngreen
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Do others share my desire to develop on a chrome book?

The solution is to load a normal linux distribution and run IDE from there. I'm using a netbook with intel n260, 1G ram, 1.6G Hz. NetBeans runs quite well. A chromebook runs more than twice faster, I'm sure it will be good enough.

As to how to load a linux, there is the Ubuntu on Cr-48 page that explains how to do it in depth. And also this very user friendly blog on arstechnica, or this blog on liliputting. They both point you eventually to the ChrUbuntu, that is a hand-re-packaged ubuntu with some scripts to ease your work.

minghua
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    [Here is a blog about loading fedora to acer c7 chromebook](http://c7fedora.wordpress.com/). After loading fedora 19, simply upgrad to fedora 20. – minghua Aug 16 '14 at 04:53
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You can install ubuntu via crouton (for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_MuVwJq_XQ&list=FLFel7rdB1nWQSjsJCaepEOg&index=1) and then you can install eclipse I'm not sure if you can install the ADT from the android sdk website but you can install the plugins from the eclipse website, third party developers, or if you really want to download it from the android sdk website you can probably get it to work with a little efort. :) Enjoy

viaggiochz
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Yes! I share your desire to program on a Chromebook! While I am still a high-schooler, I am an amateur Java and Python programmer. My school provides with a class set of about 30 Chromebooks per classroom, and I didn't know how to run my code on them. I had Eclipse on my Windows desktop at home.

When I looked around online, I found something called codenvy.io. It is basically an Eclipse Che IDE that runs online. It uses Docker images to start up a workspace, runs all in the cloud, and a free account has 3 GB of RAM.

It suited my needs, and I loved it! You should check it out.

Pranav A.
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    Another [option](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eclipse-ide-online/emnjgfpochdhhgimnoadiiinampoihkk?hl=en) in the same vein, but with poor reviews (I haven't used it). – user121330 Mar 28 '18 at 22:26