The problem with Java applets and Flash is that they are a broken model inside another broken model - they shoe-horn their own VMs to run applications inside a

The problem with Java applets and Flash is that they are a broken model inside another broken model - they shoe-horn their own VMs to run applications inside a browser. It's the ultimate hack. The web, as it was originally envisioned, makes perfect sense: HTTP, URIs and hypertext to provide navigable content, period. On the other hand, building interactive applications by manipulating the DOM while reinveinting UI patterns and widgets over and over again seems like a hack that grew to enormous proportions. I feel the reason why "web apps" are so popular is because it allows small startups to develop more-or-less cross-compatible products faster and with fewer resources than developing a webservice and then hiring 4 engineers: one for a Windows client, one for a Mac client, one for a iOS client and one for an Android client. The fact browsers all follow more-or-less the same standards and they all run Javascript turned them on the "write once, run everywhere" platform that Java failed to deliver, but in my opinion it's still (very) far away from ideal.