I can see how a web based IDE speeds up on boarding and reduces the friction in support and collaboration. But I wonder if it reduces the skills engineers develop over time?
What skills would developers really lose? Speeding up boarding seems like a win, not many skills are developed imo trying to set up you personal dev environment. It's mostly just frustrating when a company's tools don't work well on your machine.
Being able to manage the frustration could be one such skill. And also being ready to fix things instead of assuming that employer must set up a perfectly working environment for you.
I bet smaller/poorer companies may want programmers who are ready to fix tooling when it (inevitably) breaks
I see your point, but I think increasing productivity may be worth potentially losing some of the skills you mentioned.
Additionally, it's not like developer set up is the only thing that test your ability to manage frustration. I would say developer set-up is just something you need to get through to start your actual job, and if that can be eased up then it's worth it imo.
For smaller/poorer companies, they could always hire an engineer that specializes in fixing broken tooling. Ultimately it's a company's job to hire competent engineers.
Thinking back to all the times I had to set up my workspace, I wonder how much did I really learn vs just Googling and getting quick fixes.
