Cloud computing devices that rely on server back ends are a lot more powerful than your i7 Lenovo desktop. They can handle the huge databases i/o and computing resources to do a Google Internet search, speech recognition in umpteen different languages and Google Translate from and to umpteen languages, zoomable maps of the entire world down 0.5m resolution or less with linked in satellite navigation and live traffic updates.

Your Lenovo desktop is laughably puny by comparison - why just haven't realised it. The new cloud devices simply leverage the massively powerful server based computing power of the cloud far more and the puny local computing power of your puny Windows desktop less. There are huge advantages to the cloud based computing approach when you function in a communication centric work or leisure environment, but the Windows disconnected desktop based model has its advantages when you do not have good connectivity.

One question I have to ask you is do you carry your Lenovo desktop and its local data around with you everywhere you go. If you do not, then that answers the question of why people get smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks - because you can carry your computing devices and data around with you. Chromebooks go one step further than tablets and smartphones in terms of portability because in addition to carrying your cheap secure and lightweight Chromebook with you, it goes even further by allowing you to access all your data without carrying anything with you - something which other devices can't match. Chromebooks store all their data in the cloud, so you can access your data from any device with a browser - for example a netcafe, a friend's computer etc. Wait - what is that you say - Windows can do that as well? No it can't, not if you have saved your data on the local hard drive. With Windows you have to upload the data you need to access before you go out, and unlike Chromebooks it isn't transparent.

The Windows disconnected operation metaphor has huge disadvantages associated with it. It is just that people have gotten so used to working around those disadvantages that many of them can't understand other ways of working other than in the disconnected context.