Amen. I can't believe someone took so long to say it: a browser is for browsing. I have yet to see a web app that blew my mind, or hell, even came close to what a standard fat-client application can do easily.
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You're not seeing the potential of the web anymore than the original writer does. The web provides utility computing, the box on your desk does not. As soon as we lose this horse/buggy mindset and start noodling on the issues of 1) proof of correctness in code, 2) fault mitigation or absorption, and 3) true concurrency (grab a unit of computing power wherever it is), utility computing will absolutely render the desktop obsolete for any computing problem -- yep any computing problem. Right now, that Google facility in The Dalles can compute anything faster than what you can do on your desktop for less money. The fastest video card you can buy for your Dell will do one TFlop -- SETI@Home claims to be averaging 408 TFlops from a volunteer project. This is the law of economics kicking in, where money spent and efficiency desired cross, and it will kill the traditional desktop.
Thanks for reiterating conventional wisdom, but the person missing something here is you.
Sure Google can computer more for less, but I already have a PC; why buy two (one for Google and one for me)? SETI@Home leverages... (wait for it)... the desktop!
Second, the point here is not about utility computing. It's about developing applications. Let's face it, web apps are struggling to the the things that most desktop apps do easily. (Ajax is a joke.) Certainly they both have their pros and cons. And there are certainly some situations where a web app makes more sense. Don't get me wrong. But when creating rich applications, the web sucks. And all your arguing here won't change that.
No, you can computer more for less because of utility computing examples like Google. And I didn't say that having something that provides computing power in the home will go away, just that the value of you sitting down with your IBM PC-AT and running Lotus 123 will go away. When you claim that the desktop is better than the web, you had SETI@Home in mind?
And it is all about efficiently using computing power -- this will change your view on developing applications for the better. The sooner you accept that the web is a better path, the sooner you'll figure out to make web apps better, and we'll all appreciate your work.
For now, there are any number of advantages to desktop apps. Ten years from now, everything is going to be in the cloud.
I need a downmod.
I need 10 downmods for you sir. But alas ycnews in it's infinite wisdom has denied me a down arrow.
I dunno, I use plenty of web apps for running my business that are a lot better than anything I have found for the desktop. Also they saved me when I switched to the mac as I didn't need to look for a new version.
So says a person posting to news.ycombinator.com! Go back to Usenet.
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