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I'm interested in installing and starting up a Visual Studio Online project in my browser (Chrome) on my Macbook Air.

My project is an Angular App (7+) with a .Net Core Web Api backend and an older .Net Framework project that the .Net Core app connects to over HTTP when I need to send a document over a WCP (SOAP) connection to a web service. So when I need to test the .Net Framework part I switch over to a PC and run/debug the website, but I only need to test that occasionally so I mainly use my Macbook for development.

QUESTION - I'd like to see if I can get this project running/developing in Visual Studio Online on my Macbook's browser (Chrome), but I'm not sure how it works regarding .Net Core and .Net Framework? Do I need to have these SDK's installed on my machine or is everything installed/tested/run through the cloud?

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No, your machine doesn't need any dev tools, all compute and storage related to development happens in a cloud environment (read: docker containers).

If I were to elaborate, VS Online is built around decoupling front-ends (i.e. Desktop VS (although in private preview), VS Code or Browser-based Visual Studio Online experience) and backends - containers that are created and managed for you in Azure (you also have an option to DIY tricky setups or self-host on-prem).

At environment creation time, you have option to point to a git repository and VS Online will try to figure out your dependencies and configure everything.

One potential gotcha to point out: as far as I am aware the service itself is free, but to unlock full benefit you will need an Azure subscription - running environments seems to be billed at normal Azure rates.

UPD having examined my instance of VS online and further checked the docs, I must conclude, these are not full fat VMs but rather Linux docker containers that back your experience. So running windows applications inside environments is probably a no go. (you can sign up for private preview of Windows Containers, but as of now - only Linux is publicly available)

From what I gathered off your question, it seems you're mostly looking at this for debugging you windows application remotely, which likely leaves you with an option to run a windows VM somewhere and try something along the lines of this SO answer. But it seems there are quite a few limitation which will probably make it even worse for you as mac user.

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I tried to get a project going but as soon as I got to the stage/step where it asked me for my "pay-as-you-go" subscription, I exited as I didn't want to get charged for time/units/etc just for checking out the environment to see if it was something I would like to use.
What about my .Net Framework project that the VS Code UI/.Net Core app calls? Currently, to run/debug the .Net part, I have to open both VS Code and VS to run the entire app together to test and debug. Would I be able to do this with Visual Studio Online?
@user1186050 I guess it is to be expected... Microsoft incurs costs by spinning up a whole VM for you - it only makes sense they charge you for compute. Check out their calculator - the price might be palatable. Also check if you can get free credits (I remember they used to run introductory offers)
@user1186050 hard to say not knowing your setup, but if it's a stand alone app that you need - you might have to either deploy it somewhere or try to DIY an environment so you older app is preinstalled there. I'm afraid I can't really help much with planning this out
what questions would you need to ask me to understand if it's possible?
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