Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CloudShell VS Spacemacs

Compare CloudShell VS Spacemacs and see what are their differences

CloudShell logo CloudShell

Cloud Shell is a free admin machine with browser-based command-line access for managing your infrastructure and applications on Google Cloud Platform.

Spacemacs logo Spacemacs

Community-driven Emacs distribution that meshes Emacs and Vim features.
  • CloudShell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12
  • Spacemacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-26

CloudShell features and specs

  • Integrated Environment
    CloudShell provides a fully integrated development environment directly within your browser, including access to Google Cloud resources, pre-installed Google Cloud SDK, and other useful tools.
  • Convenience
    Because it's browser-based, there is no need to install or configure anything locally, which can save considerable setup time and eliminate environment inconsistencies.
  • Security
    Operating within Google's infrastructure can add layers of security, including secure connection to cloud resources and less risk of exposing local machines to vulnerabilities.
  • Access to Project Resources
    Directly connects to Google Cloud resources associated with your account, making it easy to manage and deploy applications within your cloud environment.
  • Scalability
    Seamlessly scalable environment that can handle different workloads without performance degradation.
  • Persistent Storage
    CloudShell offers persistent storage, allowing users to save their work and configurations, which are available in future sessions.
  • Pre-installed Tools
    Includes a range of pre-installed tools, such as git, gcloud SDK, and language libraries, enabling efficient development and deployment workflows.

Possible disadvantages of CloudShell

  • Resource Limits
    CloudShell has usage limits, including limited disk space and CPU, which may not be sufficient for all types of workloads, particularly resource-intensive tasks.
  • Inactive Use Timeouts
    Sessions that are inactive for a period of time may be automatically terminated, which can disrupt ongoing work.
  • Dependency on Internet Connection
    Being a cloud-based solution, a stable internet connection is required. Any disruption in connectivity can hamper development and deployment processes.
  • Latency Issues
    Depending on your geographical location, there may be latency issues which can affect performance and response times.
  • Limited Customization
    While CloudShell provides many pre-installed tools, users have limited control over the environment compared to a locally managed development setup.
  • Paid Subscription Needed for Extensive Use
    Beyond the free tier, extensive usage of CloudShell resources may incur additional costs, which can add up depending on the scale and nature of the tasks.
  • Learning Curve
    New users who are not familiar with Google Cloud's ecosystem may face an initial learning curve to fully leverage CloudShell's capabilities.

Spacemacs features and specs

  • Customizability
    Spacemacs is highly customizable, leveraging the power of Emacs and Vim. Users can tailor their development environment to exactly fit their workflow.
  • Community-driven
    Spacemacs benefits from a strong, active community. Users have access to a wealth of shared configurations, extensions, and advice.
  • Hybrid Model
    Combines the best features of Emacs and Vim, allowing users to switch easily between editing styles and take advantage of both systems’ strengths.
  • Ease of Setup
    Spacemacs provides an easy-to-use distribution of Emacs, simplifying the initial setup process and making it more accessible for newcomers.
  • Rich Documentation
    Spacemacs comes with extensive documentation, both official and user-generated, which makes it easier to learn and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of Spacemacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Despite simplifying Emacs, Spacemacs can still be daunting for beginners, requiring time and effort to master.
  • Performance
    Spacemacs can be slow to start up and may lag with heavy configurations or large files, impacting overall performance.
  • Complexity
    The combination of Emacs and Vim features can add layers of complexity, potentially overwhelming users who may prefer a more straightforward tool.
  • Dependency on Emacs
    Users are still reliant on Emacs and its ecosystem, which might be a downside for those looking to avoid the intricacies of Emacs altogether.
  • Resource Intensive
    Compared to other editors, Spacemacs can be more resource-intensive, consuming more memory and CPU power.

CloudShell videos

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Spacemacs videos

Spacemacs For Noobs

More videos:

  • Review - Can VSCode be a reasonable Spacemacs alternative? (VSpaceCode)
  • Review - EmacsCast 4 - Spacemacs vs Doom vs Emacs

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CloudShell and Spacemacs)
Text Editors
47 47%
53% 53
IDE
45 45%
55% 55
Programming
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare CloudShell and Spacemacs

CloudShell Reviews

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Spacemacs Reviews

Top 8 Sublime Text Alternatives You Can Use in 2019
Spacemacs uses the space bar as a default leader key, which is where the program gets its name from. The syntax highlighting feature on Spacemacs is enabled by default for all major programming languages, and it is configurable manually through configuration files as well as via internal commands. For all its positives, the program can be quite a bit glitchy at times. From...
Source: beebom.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CloudShell should be more popular than Spacemacs. It has been mentiond 12 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CloudShell mentions (12)

  • Intro to the YouTube APIs: searching for videos
    Command-line (gcloud) -- Those who prefer working in a terminal can enable APIs with a single command in the Cloud Shell or locally on your computer if you installed the Cloud SDK which includes the gcloud command-line tool (CLI) and initialized its use. If this is you, issue this command to enable the API: gcloud services enable youtube.googleapis.com Confirm all the APIs you've enabled with this command:... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Explore the world with Google Maps APIs
    Gcloud/command-line - Finally, for those more inclined to using the command-line, you can enable APIs with a single command in the Cloud Shell or locally on your computer if you installed the Cloud SDK (which includes the gcloud command-line tool [CLI]) and initialized its use. If this is you, issue the following command to enable all three APIs: gcloud services enable geocoding-backend.googleapis.com... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Getting started with the Google Cloud CLI interactive shell for serverless developers
    While you might find that using the Google Cloud online console or Cloud Shell environment meets your occasional needs, for maximum developer efficiency you will want to install the Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) on your own system where you already have your favorite editor or IDE and git set up. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Cloud desktops aren't as good as you'd think
    Here is the product https://cloud.google.com/shell It has a quick start guide and docs. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • I do not have a personal laptop. Should I use my school's library computers to start learning or just wait until I get a laptop?
    If you are worried about creating other accounts etc - you can just use your gmail account with https://cloud.google.com/shell and that gives you a very small vm and a coding environment (replit or colab are way better than this though). Source: about 3 years ago
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Spacemacs mentions (6)

  • Our teacher only allows us to use VIM
    Show them spacemacs.org, github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs or at least spacevim.org. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Creating Haskell notebooks with org-mode
    Your Emacs will need some packages: org, org-babel and haskell-mode. If you use spacemacs it is enough to add these layers in your .spacemacs:. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Vim Users! Share your Clever Configs and Plugin Setups (or learn something new)🔥
    Try https://spacemacs.org magit + org-mode are the big selling points. Magit especially for programming. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Emacs' org-mode gets citation support
    Aside from editing on mobile devices, I think Emacs isn't as hard to pick up as it once was. It's certainly not easy but tools like Spacemacs or Doom make it much simpler to get started and really limit the need to create and edit a complicated little library of your Elisp code. http://spacemacs.org https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • A guide to create tmux like Custom Layouts in Spacemacs
    Coming from a vim world with tmux, I had really missed the multiple split window layout in Spacemacs. But after knowing how to define custom layouts this seemed to be an easy exercise for me. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing CloudShell and Spacemacs, you can also consider the following products

GitHub Codespaces - GItHub Codespaces is a hosted remote coding environment by GitHub based on Visual Studio Codespaces integrated directly for GitHub.

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

CodeTasty - CodeTasty is a programming platform for developers in the cloud.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Glitch - Glitch is the friendly community where everyone builds the web. Simple, powerful interface for creating web apps.

GNU Emacs - GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.