Hi everybody, So i have recently completed front-end training and ready to start back-end development. First thing i have to do is create an account on Cloud 9. 
Why is it necessary to use Cloud 9, can i use my own desktop environment for the tutorials/tasks?
Just to note that i am familiar with command line, and been using npm (and other tools like bower, webpack etc) for my front-projects already.
Any recommendations please.
You don’t have to use c9. You can develop your projects locally.
Cloud9 allows collaboration with other coders. It is also internet facing so when you preview your app it is running on the web. It has a command line interface so you can run your necessary cli commands.
If you’re already using Node, then don’t worry about it. There’s a number of reasons that someone might not want to/be able to work locally (we have campers who are on mobile devices or using public computers, for example).
From a teaching standpoint, environment stuff is tricky. If we suggest a specific, uniform environment then we can give specific instructions.
the beta projects are using glitch
while you can do the exercises anywhere (locally)…basically you do have to have an active/online site hosting your projects to submit a link for them to be tested. This is the back-end projects part…
Is glitch same thing than c9?
I tried to sign up cloud9, they claim to be free but you have to give your credit card credential to get access. Free should mean free.
@ibnhabib I just used connect via GitHub. Did you try this?
No glitch.com is a different website. You can actually host node apps there.
Cloud9 they are hosted but will become dormant when you close down Cloud9.
Yes, I tried right now again, i was asked about email, user name, name, and the credit card detail again.
Maybe it is because of your residence?
Try glitch.com
Might be but i am not in high risk area.
@mubaidr,
I assume you’re doing the back-end projects on FreeCodeCamp and not betaFreeCodeCamp. FCC has transitioned over to Glitch.com from Cloud9. Not sure why but Cloud9 requires a credit card. I switched to Beta after I finished my frontend and almost completed Data Visual Certification and it recommends Glitch.com. Glitch.com is a nice web development platform. You can do your projects on your desktop. Either make them available online for testing or copy them over to a Glitch project. If you use Glitch, to install NPMs in your package.json file use the add package button to install each one.
Cloud9 required a credit card once they were acquired by… I think it was Amazon? someone big anyway
Edit: Amazon:
It’s still free, but yes it now requires a credit card to register. FCC is removing references to Cloud 9.
Thanks everybody for the input. I am going to do all projects using git and hosting on glitch. Thanks again.
I like Glitch. It worked for me until I made it to the Voting App. I tried pulling in all the dependencies for a basic Mongoose Express Node app and started running up against the project memory limits.
For the full-stack projects I’ve moved back to local dev with a Github repo and Heroku hosting.
Honestly you shouldn’t, a local development environment, Git, and screensharing should be enough, if not check out the plugin Atom Pair (https://atom.io/packages/atom-pair) which does the same thing that Cloud9 does except no credit card required and lets you use your local development environment.
Update: Seems like heroku is much better option. Git + heroku is workin good for me.
Heroku you are limited to 5 apps. After that you need to get out your credit card again.
No such thing as a free lunch.