The point is that the frontend is a "thin" JavaScript UI rendered in the browser while the entire real dev environment is remote -- LSP (language sever protocol

The point is that the frontend is a "thin" JavaScript UI rendered in the browser while the entire real dev environment is remote -- LSP (language sever protocol plugins aka autocomplete, semanic highlighting, nav to reference/definition, etc), other plugins, the project's toolchain, etc, are running in a container/pod on a beefy machine. Theia (and GitPod.io) will give you this today and it is compelling. GitPod gives you a single button on PRs/Issues that drops you in a dev environment, ready to build and test at the click of a button. No cloning, no installing a toolchain, etc. If Rust and Rust Language Server are running in a container with Theia, this means I can use a Chromebook-style device for serious, real development without having to enable dev mode or even Linux apps. Every machine in the world becomes a real potential development environment. Theia even has (or is about to have) debug protocol support too. A real, full IDE running on a remote DC, accessible from your browser. ( If you follow what the Theia and Che devs are doing, they're trying to support the full VS Code API... Which is SUPER exciting!) (Note, with the level I'm speaking about here, the CRDT is a bit of an implementation detail, but it's useful for collaborative editing and in xrays case, syncing state b/w the browser client and the backend and the underlying SCM system.)