They've come far. They've done a great job. I don't think they've replaced the desktop though. I don't think the average user can go chrome only yet.
At some point an estate agent will send them a word doc and ask them to fill in some details and email it back. You and I can figure out how to get this going in google docs but the intended audience might have trouble. Google docs will encourage them to save it to the cloud and share instead of attaching which will confuse the estate agent. That doesn't mean Google's way is wrong, but in this scenario it does mean its harder and defeats the whole purpose.
Same problem with skype. If your friends/kids use skype, you will not be happy with a computer that can't do skype.
Basically, chrome needs to be compatible with the PC world and the way people are used to doing things. Compromise.
At some point an estate agent will send them a word doc and ask them to fill in some details and email it back. You and I can figure out how to get this going in google docs but the intended audience might have trouble. Google docs will encourage them to save it to the cloud and share instead of attaching which will confuse the estate agent. That doesn't mean Google's way is wrong, but in this scenario it does mean its harder and defeats the whole purpose.
Same problem with skype. If your friends/kids use skype, you will not be happy with a computer that can't do skype.
Basically, chrome needs to be compatible with the PC world and the way people are used to doing things. Compromise.