I actually own a Chromebook (but installed Linux on it about half a year later). It was pretty alright for what is sufficient in a netbook-like device. Despite everything being web-oriented, it's definitely better than other Thin Web Client systems. If you know how to override the security, it can be a good investment, even on Chrome OS. You can still have access to a shell, still have the same tools (in terms of CLI), and still have a good time with it for development. There's various IDEs/editors on the Chrome Web Store (and there's online IDEs/editors as well).

I think overall its pretty good.