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A few guesses:

a. It just works. No need to download and configure the right version of the SDK.

b. Does not timeout when you close your laptop [I hope!].

c. I works on a Chromebook. Possibly not something you care about, but a historical pain point for the consistency of Google offerings.

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a. Which SDK? You mean the ssh client? b. Any custom software is wiped from your account in about an hour, though. Also an SSH re-connect is not that big a deal, IMO. c. There are SSH client Chrome Apps

I guess I still don't see the point but maybe I'm assuming that one is already running a *nix and can either jump into the terminal there or connect a VM in the cloud very easily. The convenience doesn't seem that large.

For B, unless something is actively running it will presumably just freeze the instance and restart it when you return. GCE is pretty quick to do this and for shells that's not disruptive.

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