[RawData]

So disappointed with this!

I teach coding courses online...I've published dozens of courses teaching many different programming languages to thousands of students. In every single course, I recommend and use c9.io as the dev environment.

In one stupid swoop, Amazon has made all my courses obsolete.

Now people watching my videos can't create an account on C9, they have to sign up for aws and use the completely different interface. People can no longer follow along with the thousands of videos I've created.

I get that you bought C9 and want to integrate it. But why close down c9.io to new accounts? Why can't they both exist?

So very disappointed...

[SkyPuncher]

With all due respect, it kind of sounds like you put all of your eggs in one basket. Even if c9 wasn't bought, it's a bit short sighted to rely so heavily on a single service that has plenty of good alternatives.

[RawData]

Helpful comment, thanks.

[mfonda]

Sorry about the lost videos, but that was a indeed a helpful comment. Any time you use any dependency, it's important to be aware of how it can change. Locking down a specific version, if possible, is generally a good route to take. Software in general, and especially SAAS, tends to change frequently, so building your project in an manner that safely handles changes is important.

The pitfalls of dependencies is something a lot of courses tend to ignore completely. Getting bit by dependency issues tends to be a hard-learned lesson, just like this one. Perhaps consider mentioning it in future classes.

[chrisseaton]

I think it's a bit mean to go around calling them stupid, because you chose to make your course dependent on them. They (presumably) didn't promise you anything and don't owe you anything.

[RawData]

We wouldn't want to hurt Amazon's feelings.

[nathantotten]

Well, in this case "Amazon" is actually a team of people.

[fokinsean]

It's unfortunate that it makes your videos out of date, however you chose to depend on cloud9. You could have used any other dozen non cloud based editors out there.

Definitely a lesson to everyone to be cognizant of their dependencies.

[RawData]

Yeah, I went with the one backed by Amazon...stupid me.

[clhodapp]

Software changes. Any time you take up a dependency from anyone, part of what you are signing up for is tracking the changes in it over time.

[sangaya]

Sounds like you didn't anticipate they would ever change the user experience. Perhaps you can slice out ux portions of video separate from portions teaching programming concepts. Then you can build a better product that is resilient to change. Not all is lost. It's just a lesson to be learned from.

[amasad]

I hope folks would forgive this plug but I think we can help: if you're looking for an alternative check out https://repl.it We have a lot of folks using it for online courses and YouTube tutorials.

We're committed to being open and available to anyone who wants to use the product. We're also very passionate about education and have a product specifically targeted at educators: https://repl.it/classrooms

We're currently not as feature complete IDE as C9 is but the aim is to get there without complicating the product too much. We want to keep it so that under 2 seconds anyone can spin up an environment. We also want to keep it simple and uncluttered. However, we want to expose a lot of the power that we already built the infrastructure for. Big updates to that end coming soon.

[AcerbicZero]

I was (and still am) a huge fan of repl.it, and I used it heavily while I was teaching myself Python/Ruby a few years ago. Being able to type code, in small chunks, and test anything that didn't work as expected is a massive help when picking up a new language, for me anyway.

I stopped using it when I switched jobs and our proxy was breaking connections to the site, but it looks like it has come a long way since then.

[michaelmrose]

Obviously your situation is lamentable and frustrating however with frustration always comes an opportunity to improve. I would argue that there are a number of useful things to be learned.

* Instructions on how to do particular tasks in a gui that may change drastically in the next version are of limited and transitory value. Investing heavily in this is probably a poor use of your time.

* Depend on platforms you control. People whose relationship to you is decidedly asymmetrical have little reason to concern themselves with your needs. At minimum a platform ought to be open source and self hosting ought to be a realistic option for you.

* You might want to consider a virtual machine configured with a particular environment as a better way to present learners with a setup environment. While installing virtualbox will take a few extra minutes anyone to whom go to a website, download the installer and click next is too high a bar might have too little invested in the matter.

* Text is a better medium to teach compared to video. Video requires a lot more bandwidth, is less portable especially to anyone who might want to view it offline or in areas with bad or inconsistent connectivity, requires more time to produce, is harder to update, is harder to bookmark, is harder to share, is harder for the learner to refer to later.

Compare cutting and pasting a bit of text into a note, or referring to a bookmark vs finding the exact spot in a video where you mentioned a particular fact.

[whoisjuan]

Your students will eventually need to learn how to work with a cloud provider. Also, the new console is fairly straight-forward, so not that different from the old c9.io console in terms of UI flow.

[blibble]

being presented with an "ENTER CREDIT CARD NUMBER NOW" prompt is quite a large barrier to entry

[tcd]

Welcome to technology? If you decide to dabble in this industry then you MUST assume what you do will be outdated in a week - Bitcoin is changing on an HOURLY basis.

It moves fast, very fast, faster than any other industry on the planet, technology is extremely new, and as such, will change frequently.

[ajainy]

It's unfortunate. People behind c9.io should have thought about existing users etc. AWS did, what they do for all. -=-= Do you want to modify your offering to include free AWS trial offer (i think, AWS offer 750hrs of ec2 something) OR do monetization of your courses and u foot the bill of AWS.

Something like that.

[RawData]

It would be impossible for me to re-record every single video using AWS as the dev environment...I have thousands.

[techie99]

Please read additional information pertaining to education and training use cases for Cloud9 here: https://c9.io/announcement_edu. (I work for Cloud9)

[RawData]

Thank you, that helps a lot.

[desireco42]

I feel for you. I think it was reasonable to use and support such a great service as Cloud9 is/was. Amazon doesn't have the most pretty interface in the world and it is unfortunate that they decided not to provide more seamless experience for existing users.

Curious, can you provide link to youtube where you, I assume, store your videos.

[RawData]

Codemy.com is my website. I don't host my videos on youtube.

[ivan_burazin]

Hi RawData, As the only only real independant Cloud IDE vendor we here at Codeanywhere.com would love to help you out any way we can! Please do let know :)

[grashalm01]

Didn't they say in the end that c9.io will continue to work?

[RawData]

It works if you already have an account. I think anyone who watches one of my videos from today forward is out of luck.

[parzivalm]

What's stopping you from setting up your own c9 setup since it is open source?

[nickjj]

Probably because he/she has tons of videos that walk through setting it up on c9.io's old site.

I'm also a course creator (but I don't use cloud9). A change like this is a really big deal for someone in his/her shoes. Having to re-record all of those videos is non-trivial, and doing it with the self hosted version would still require new videos to be made.

[parzivalm]

I'm not saying it isn't a hassle. But that is a better solution then rerecording everything. If you come up with a self hosted solution for c9, I would hope that the courses have a single video for setting up cloud9 which would be better then rerecording everything.

I feel for them, but it is the risk associated with using any sort of product you don't directly manage yourself.

[RawData]

This. Yes.

[Terretta]

Consider Eclipse Che and CodeEnvy.

You can version pin/host/containerize to self host, whatever, along with sharable prebuilt envs.

[Double_a_92]

For how long, is the question...