How well does using a powerful desktop PC as main work station, but remoting into with with laptop frequently work?

Posted by gdesplin@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 7 comments

My current main work computer is a $3000+ macbook, but my gaming PC I built on a budget for less than $1000. My current budget limits me to this setup, I can't have two $3000+ computers.

VS code (and its forks *cursor*) have great native remote extensions, which got me thinking, why not flip my setup, so I have a powerful $3000+ gaming type PC as my main workstation at home, that I use directly most day of the week to work and play games, but use a cheaper laptop when I work away from home, but remote into my home workstation when I do.

I know this isn't a unique or new idea, so that's why I'm asking here, do any of you do something like this? How well does it work? What is your exact setup software wise (VS code remote extensions, or other remote applications?). Any downsides?

I'd figure I'd work from windows and WSL, will that work fine to also remote into that setup (double remote essentially, remote to PC, then to linux subsystem)? Or should I work directly from a linux partition and just switch to windows when gaming?

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DigitalJedi850@reddit

It’s common, useful, and effective.

X-Stance44@reddit

You are writing a post in the 'learn programming'.

But the post contains: Regrets that the MacBook is not that great for gaming. A desire to spend $3000 on a gaming PC. A few minor details and questions about remote access, Linux, and WSL to ease your conscience.

I think you have the perfect setup for learning. All tasks can be solved through 'software' ways: You can install virtual machines on the MacBook and check how remote access works. You can set up a hypervisor on the PC, configure GPU passthrough, and run 2 virtual machines simultaneously: Windows for gaming and Linux for work tasks.

I have set up remote access to my PC, there can be some obstacles. Home internet provider may use for your connection a 'gray' IP address. Also, some providers offer dynamic IPs, but this can be resolved by sending the address after startup. Additionally, the PC mainboard should support Wake on LAN.

grantrules@reddit

I have the poor man's WOL.. my bios is set to turn back on after power failure and I have it plugged into one of those IOT power sockets lol

morto00x@reddit

My now wife did that for her master’s thesis a decade ago. Her team was using specific Matlab libraries for big data research that ran on single core, so running each test took several days. At the time I had a gaming PC overclocked to 4.5GHz and let her remote into it for her research. Execution times went down to one or two days. But that also meant less gaming for me.

These days I would probably just pay for AWS since there are far more options available for less.