4 ms·

Today's GUI is yesterday's terminal

KGIII 9y ago
I am still sort of baffled by this trend. In my pocket, I have a device with capabilities of a supercomputer from not that many years ago. So do many other people. Yet, with all this, we're slowly reverting to the days of the dumb terminal. The concept of data ownership is all but dead. Even trivial things, like word processors, are being moved to the cloud and more things are requiring connectivity.
- simonh 9y ago
  But then a huge chunk of the smarts in e.g. Google Docs is in the JavaScript you're executing locally. Just because you download the code at runtime doesn't change the fact your device is doing a ton of local computation to make that application work. A lot of web apps like that are actually local JavaScript apps with a relatively dumb web storage backend. Then again I mainly use google docs using the native app on my iPad.
  - KGIII 9y ago
    Yeah, there is still a big difference between JavaScript and an installed application. I agree that they are functionally similar, but they are philosophically different and a paradigm shift from the brief moment where computer users nominally owned their data and had control of their platform. They still can, of course. You can get any number of word processors to install and run locally. However, a smaller percentage are doing so. For better or worse, they are putting their data, the output of their labor, onto computers that don't belong to them. No, they don't have to, but many do so. The numbers for something like Office 365 are amazing. It's great business for the cloud providers, but is it really good for the end user? Then again, does the end user really give a damn? Evidence suggests not. I'm not sure if they are making informed choices, however. With the increased censorship going on, I'm a bit concerned with the trend. Meh... Just some thoughts on the subject. Even if it is a problem, I have no idea how to fix it. I'm not even sure it's a problem.

I am still sort of baffled by this trend. In my pocket, I have a device with capabilities of a supercomputer from not that many years ago. So do many other people. Yet, with all this, we're slowly reverting to the days of the dumb terminal. The concept of data ownership is all but dead. Even trivial things, like word processors, are being moved to the cloud and more things are requiring connectivity.

simonh 9y ago
But then a huge chunk of the smarts in e.g. Google Docs is in the JavaScript you're executing locally. Just because you download the code at runtime doesn't change the fact your device is doing a ton of local computation to make that application work. A lot of web apps like that are actually local JavaScript apps with a relatively dumb web storage backend. Then again I mainly use google docs using the native app on my iPad.
- KGIII 9y ago
  Yeah, there is still a big difference between JavaScript and an installed application. I agree that they are functionally similar, but they are philosophically different and a paradigm shift from the brief moment where computer users nominally owned their data and had control of their platform. They still can, of course. You can get any number of word processors to install and run locally. However, a smaller percentage are doing so. For better or worse, they are putting their data, the output of their labor, onto computers that don't belong to them. No, they don't have to, but many do so. The numbers for something like Office 365 are amazing. It's great business for the cloud providers, but is it really good for the end user? Then again, does the end user really give a damn? Evidence suggests not. I'm not sure if they are making informed choices, however. With the increased censorship going on, I'm a bit concerned with the trend. Meh... Just some thoughts on the subject. Even if it is a problem, I have no idea how to fix it. I'm not even sure it's a problem.