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something like nitrous.io would work for this.

Perhaps use a preconfigured Amazon AWS Workspace. I believe it comes out to less than $100/month for a fairly powerful remote workspace instance.

Even "Lets have a quick chat on Skype" can be a pain in the arse. I use Linux, and don't use Skype regularly, so its frequently the case that I haven't set up /used Skype on whatever laptop I happen to have at the time.

People might assume that I am some sort of idiot for not using Skype, but I have a proper VOIP number setup, so I don't have the need.