Google Colab vs. Local IDE for Vision Projects

I’m starting a project to merge images using vision models (e.g., blending, text-guided manipulation) and want to avoid local setup due to hardware constraints.

Pros/Cons of Google Colab vs. Local IDE:

  • Colab: Free GPU access, no setup, but limited runtime and privacy concerns.
  • Local IDE: Full control, but requires hardware investment and environment configuration.

Questions:

  1. For non-local development , are there alternatives to Colab (e.g., Kaggle, AWS SageMaker) better suited for iterative prototyping?
  2. How do you handle large datasets or model dependencies in cloud notebooks?

Any tips for optimizing workflows in restricted environments would be appreciated!

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