I see the big potential in having an always-on development environment in the cloud. It would enable better collaboration. It also enables features not possible with in the old way, like easier deployment, ready-made persistence, moving back in time, … .

But for me the problem with them is that the text editor is not Emacs. I guess a lot of developers who are somewhat experienced have similar attachment to their editors and scripts. And it’s not just an emotional one: it directly affects productivity.

Not trying to be negative here, but this is really an issue.