Never underestimate the selling power of cheap crap.
I still have my lenovo laptop for when I need it, but that's pretty rare
I've gotten 95% of my development tools working properly on it. Granted, most of those tools are command-line based (i.e. vim, git, python, etc.), so it's not really a surprise. The only barriers keeping this from becoming my only computer are things that I never expected it to conquer in the first place. I didn't get it with the expectation it could run IntelliJ/Arduino, so no hard feelings there.
I now reach for the Chromebook far more often than I do my (older generation) Macbook Air.
I have a mac laptop at work, which I only keep around for video editing, but you can even do basic video editing in the browser nowadays, with sites such as WeVideo and Pixorial.
With the Chromebook, I get longer battery life, a lighter frame, a faster startup time, no fans/heating issues, and more consistent keyboard shortcuts (there's only one set to remember because there's only one app). Some of these might not be issues with the MBA line anymore, but mine is a first-gen machine.
Aside from the things I mentioned in my original comment, my Macbook Air is really just a keyboard, web browser, and terminal to me. Well, the Chromebook is too, and it's a better one at that.
When I first got it, the default ssh client was javascript based, but you could get the native code version by joining a specific Google group and then installing a development version of the same ssh client, not sure if thats changed yet
My Samsung ARM Chromebook has two partitions, one of which loads into ChromeOS and one which loads into a full Ubuntu/ARM rootfs.
What do you base your "cheap crap" comment on? Using the laptop and not liking it? What did you not like about it?
For starters, the exterior is basically a knock-off of the Macbook Air. This type of crummy me-too design is consistent with other products considered cheap crap.
Next, in terms of functionality, I am to understand that the Chromebook does not offer much more than a web browser. To some people this is just how our cloud-filled future will be. To me, it just does less. That's not a feature. It's just crappy.
Third, I am to understand that it is loaded with, and possibly tied to Google services. I like Google search fine and well, but I'm very sick of Google trying to turn the entire population into "data prostitutes" who trade privacy for convenience. No, I don't want to upload all my documents into Google. No, I don't want all my communication stored by Google. No, I don't want my location and all my movements tracked by Google. No, I don't want all my web browsing activity to be tracked by Google. The whole prospect seems orwellian.
I'm guessing someone will tell me that my concerns will be resolved if I load Linux on it. Well, I used Linux on the desktop for years, and I got tired of having to cruise forums and bug reports to work around whatever the latest issue with it was. I finally bought a Macbook and you know what? It just works. It has all the cool unix stuff I need on the command line, plus a pretty solid package manager in the form of Homebrew. Not to mention the hardware is first-class. I'm sorry if it sounds like FUD to you that I don't want to jump back into a tar pit of f'ing around with Linux on the desktop. My time is worth more than that.
Note: I still use Linux on the server and it's pretty great. It's the desktop that I consider a waste of time.
So in summary, it just looks like a crappy knock-off that sacrifices user privacy and does not do very much. And the price is cheap, that's a fact.