Why should i use Cloud 9?

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. :open_mouth: 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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

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Is glitch same thing than c9?

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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.

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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.

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Cloud9 required a credit card once they were acquired by… I think it was Amazon? someone big anyway

Edit: Amazon:

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It’s still free, but yes it now requires a credit card to register. FCC is removing references to Cloud 9.

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Thanks everybody for the input. I am going to do all projects using git and hosting on glitch. Thanks again.

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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.

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Update: Seems like heroku is much better option. Git + heroku is workin good for me.

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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.

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