It's a preconfigured VM that includes all the tools for developing for Google Cloud Platform. You just click a button on a console and you have everything you

It's a preconfigured VM that includes all the tools for developing for Google Cloud Platform. You just click a button on a console and you have everything you need, with a 5GB persistent $HOME directory. True, you could do everything this is doing with Compute Engine. The point is that it's always one-click away and there's no setup, maintenance, or (for the time being) cost.