Seems like today we have the best of both worlds -- powerful desktop computers that can easily back themselves up to the cloud either in whole via backup servic

Seems like today we have the best of both worlds -- powerful desktop computers that can easily back themselves up to the cloud either in whole via backup services or in part via replicated version control systems like git or remote drive sync things like Google Drive or Dropbox. You get the local power of a desktop plus the reliability of replicated managed storage. You can also easily connect cheap huge external hard drives for on-site additional backups that you control. So yeah, why? I see cloud IDEs as a product of a few years ago when "everything is going to the web." Today "everything is going to mobile" so you're seeing similar attempts to force fit everything into that model. The only rationale I can see for a cloud IDE is fine grained real-time collaboration features that work easily everywhere, but in practice I've rarely wanted such a thing. Having more than one person typing on the same source file is just obnoxious. Another use case I can imagine is people who are total nomads, but then again a Macbook Air or similar tiny laptop is pretty portable.