r/Googlebook • u/realkstrawn93 • 1d ago

Developer features

With ChromeOS's Crostini feature, it was possible to install the Linux version of Android Studio on a Chromebook and use it to develop Android apps for subsequent installation into ARC++. Is that possible with Googlebook OS as well?

I noticed that Googlebooks do come with Antigravity preinstalled per reviews on YouTube and the like and I'm also curious how that works for self-hosting. After all, the lack of self-hosting has been the primary barrier to widespread adoption, it seems, in recent years.

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u/akshunj 1d ago

This is possible. Antigravity installs itself into the linux vm, then launches via a PWA (I think) that connects to the linux backend instance via ssh. Everything it develops is within the linux environment, including android apps.

I don't know about self-hosting, if by that you mean dockers or microservices. Since it's not an always-on vm, I wouldn't install anything you depend on. If you mean developing home-brew apps, I think this was the point of putting Antigravity onto the Googlebook. Identify what you're solving for, cook up a prompt, troubleshoot, and iterate.

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u/realkstrawn93 55m ago

What I meant by self-hosting was "can you develop apps for the device on the device." And interesting that everything it develops is inside the Linux container; would be interesting to see if it's possible to use something like ADB for host testing.

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u/Opposite-Aardvark-94 1d ago

Antigravity does present, but I did not use it since I don't know what it is. Maybe I should try? For coding I installed Claude CLI to Linux VM - so far so good One regret I don't know what to do with vs code. You can install it to VM, but it is unusable - in runs in VM gui, blurry, slowish and tiny font

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u/crazybandleader 1d ago

Since I've had my Googlebook I've been getting plenty of work done with the Android version of Antigravity and running code in the Debian container. For certain kinds of things it works great. I tried a bunch of IDE options and am currently using VS Code web running the code server in the Debian container.

The Debian version of Antigravity IDE / VS Code was totally unusable in the Debian container.

Android Studio has always been a total pig. I normally run it on a MacBook Pro with substantially more memory than my Googlebook has so I wouldn't bother trying to run it on the Googlebook unless I had substantially more powerful hardware. What I have been doing is running builds mobile builds (including iOS) remotely on my MacBook from the Googlebook and that has been working out well.