Check out Codebox.io, another open source web ide. I've been comparing the two from a self-hosted standpoint. c9 definitely has the more polished interface (for instance, the ability to resize any pain), but codebox doesn't seem to limit any features on the self-hosted version. It just seems to work better.
I only got my self-hosted version running last night and couldn't seem to spot a "chat" option (had two different browsers open) but for any file that was open by two people, you got to see who was editing what within the file.
When I was running c9, I couldn't even get the console to display. I found a plethora of issues in their github issue tracker of other people with the same problem, as well as code suggestions to fix it, but virtually no response on any issue from the c9 people.
I reported an issue I was having with codebox on their tracker. First I thought it was a bug, then I found a workaround (set the USER environment variable before starting codebox). I reported that on the issue, suggesting a documentation update, and within an hour, they had committed new code that made the workaround unnecessary.
So for self-hosted, I think codebox has the more stable and actively developed codebase while c9's open-source version is more of an afterthought. But I do admit that c9's hosted service is much nicer than codebox's hosted service.
> All of the competition can only be good for us developers.
Competition isn't a panacea. All this means is that we get to choose from dozens of half-baked options instead of a small number of ones that have each gotten a lot of effort poured into them.
A little more cooperation would be nice, but editors are one of those things where everyone seems to want to try their hand at it before getting bored and wandering off.
See also: build systems, programming languages, games.
Yeah. This whole thing (an endless supply of stream-of-consciousness style blog posts about one new editor after the other - first that one where the dev sold unlimited upgrades and then didn't bother to release a new version (can't remember the name), this Sublime Text thing, lighting table or whatever it's called, and for example the bruha around this 'neovim' fad) is like watching a bunch of ricers argue over whether a red spoiler will make your Acura go faster than a blue spoiler, and doing that from your 2013 7-series BMW and wondering 'what are these people talking about'.
Add LIVEditor [http://liveditor.com], although it's single-purpose is for css, html and js only. It uses Webkit too, but for live preview of css and html changes only, like the real-time effects you can see with Firebug or Dev Tools.
Thanks. The homepage was using the <video> html5 tag, looks like some browsers don't support them well, I finally decided and have changed to youtube video instead...
Edit anywhere just with a browser is a win IMHO. Also easy pairing.