3 ms·

I see the success of web applications as a mix of a few different things: - Ease of deployment/execution (just enter the name of the app and we're in), - Stri

I see the success of web applications as a mix of a few different things: - Ease of deployment/execution (just enter the name of the app and we're in), - Strict sandboxing (webapps can't break your computer), - Ease of administration (automatic updates), - Fast development is possible by cutting costs (there's only one "platform" -- the web, not Win+mac+Linux, no need to do any real error handling, "something went wrong" is fine). The downside of this is that those 3 points come together with some disadvantages, like e.g. complete regression and ignorace of the last 30 years of UI research, and low stability/quality of software. How a desktop application success could look like we can see in the form of the mobile apps (which are desktop apps), which fulfill all the points above; there's no real need for web apps on mobiles. Providing these mechanisms for apps targeted at traditional desktop computers could render webapps unnecessary. I just hope this "fast development, low quality and low usability web trend" will end soon, or at least the hype will finally meet its correction. Web development rides on the acceleration provided by desktop software, and when this acceleration will slow down, because people will think that web apps are sufficient, that's I think when we'll see the correction.

seec 3y ago
In theory yes but look at what Apple did. In the name of convergence, they destroyed the UI/UX of many of their classic softwares born in the early 2000 and yet you don't even get to run them cross platform anyway. Their performance also sucks balls. I used to be on the other side, but now I think that it's more likely that web apps meet the old standard of the classic software than the old software somehow becoming better and more useful somehow. For now, the only things that have not switched are large software with big performance and latency requirement. As the hardware evolves and the web platform matures even more (especially with web assembly VM) it is unlikely we will go back to previous ways. Heck, even Apple build half their apps with a lot of web technologies mixed with their own stuff. I wish they would just commit to the web completely because this way we could somewhat have decent cross platform experience; but that wouldn't sell many Macs so it's wishful thinking. In the end, they are probably obsoleting themselves in the long run...

seec 3y ago

In theory yes but look at what Apple did. In the name of convergence, they destroyed the UI/UX of many of their classic softwares born in the early 2000 and yet you don't even get to run them cross platform anyway. Their performance also sucks balls. I used to be on the other side, but now I think that it's more likely that web apps meet the old standard of the classic software than the old software somehow becoming better and more useful somehow. For now, the only things that have not switched are large software with big performance and latency requirement. As the hardware evolves and the web platform matures even more (especially with web assembly VM) it is unlikely we will go back to previous ways. Heck, even Apple build half their apps with a lot of web technologies mixed with their own stuff. I wish they would just commit to the web completely because this way we could somewhat have decent cross platform experience; but that wouldn't sell many Macs so it's wishful thinking. In the end, they are probably obsoleting themselves in the long run...