4 ms·

I never understood the needs for the vast majority of apps. With everything clearly moving towards the web over the last twenty years, why did we all of a sudde

I never understood the needs for the vast majority of apps. With everything clearly moving towards the web over the last twenty years, why did we all of a sudden focus on native applications? Money is the only one I can think of. I sure as shit don't need a native application to view news / tweets / whatever other nonsense there is these days. I've limited myself to the very first "page" of my iPhone. No more.

joeblau 9y ago
I agree with you, the vast majority of apps aren't really useful or would be just as good being websites. I've culled my iOS apps down to 1 page an a half. The home screen contains apps I use and the second page contains apps I kind of need or can't delete. Everything else got deleted.
madez 9y ago
The web of software has inherent unsolveable security issues and leads to an ecosystem where less and less software lies under the direct or indirect control of the user. Proprietary apps are not the solution to this either, of course. We need native, free (not necessarily without exchange of money) and open source programs that do the work for us.
- Cyberdog 9y ago
  > inherent unsolveable security issues And UX issues, and performance issues. Building (and using) native apps over "web apps" for non-trivial tasks is definitely the right way to go. And, no, I'm not talking about apps using Electron or the like.
pjmlp 9y ago
Because the kludge of HTML 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript is no match for actuall good UI/UX and platform integration, as proven by all WebApps platforms introduced since the WebRuntime on Symbian OS. WebAssembly will be the final nail, making the browser just yet another general purpose VM, targeted by all major language eco-systems, using their UI framworks on top of Canvas and WebGL.
- oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
  Admittedly, I have barely used MS Word in at least a decade, but I find Google Docs a far superior overall experience. Do you honestly have no positive web app experience at all?
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Google Docs is at the level of Word 2.0 for Windows for Workgroups. Aka an improved typewriter version with some support for images. No, I have yet to use any web app that could provide a better UI/UX than native alternatives, specially in execution speed.
    - overcast 9y ago
      So you'd rather Hacker News was an app correct? I sure don't.
      - pjmlp 9y ago
        I use the Reddit app yes. Better yet would be for HN and any other kind of discussions forum, to just be NNTP hosted and then I could use any newsreader I like. The Internet is about network protocols and distributed computing, not trying to shoehorn everything into http:// http://
        overcast 9y ago
        www would disagree.
        pjmlp 9y ago
        Mobile native apps and the market failure of all browser based OSes would disagree. Even ChromeOS only had an impact in the US school system, forcing Google to support Android native apps.
        9y ago

joeblau 9y ago

I agree with you, the vast majority of apps aren't really useful or would be just as good being websites. I've culled my iOS apps down to 1 page an a half. The home screen contains apps I use and the second page contains apps I kind of need or can't delete. Everything else got deleted.

madez 9y ago

The web of software has inherent unsolveable security issues and leads to an ecosystem where less and less software lies under the direct or indirect control of the user. Proprietary apps are not the solution to this either, of course. We need native, free (not necessarily without exchange of money) and open source programs that do the work for us.

Cyberdog 9y ago
> inherent unsolveable security issues And UX issues, and performance issues. Building (and using) native apps over "web apps" for non-trivial tasks is definitely the right way to go. And, no, I'm not talking about apps using Electron or the like.

pjmlp 9y ago

Because the kludge of HTML 5, CSS 3 and JavaScript is no match for actuall good UI/UX and platform integration, as proven by all WebApps platforms introduced since the WebRuntime on Symbian OS. WebAssembly will be the final nail, making the browser just yet another general purpose VM, targeted by all major language eco-systems, using their UI framworks on top of Canvas and WebGL.

oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
Admittedly, I have barely used MS Word in at least a decade, but I find Google Docs a far superior overall experience. Do you honestly have no positive web app experience at all?
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Google Docs is at the level of Word 2.0 for Windows for Workgroups. Aka an improved typewriter version with some support for images. No, I have yet to use any web app that could provide a better UI/UX than native alternatives, specially in execution speed.
  - overcast 9y ago
    So you'd rather Hacker News was an app correct? I sure don't.
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      I use the Reddit app yes. Better yet would be for HN and any other kind of discussions forum, to just be NNTP hosted and then I could use any newsreader I like. The Internet is about network protocols and distributed computing, not trying to shoehorn everything into http:// http://
      - overcast 9y ago
        www would disagree.
        pjmlp 9y ago
        Mobile native apps and the market failure of all browser based OSes would disagree. Even ChromeOS only had an impact in the US school system, forcing Google to support Android native apps.
        9y ago