3 ms·
The real answer to the question isn't technical. Local-first apps haven't become popular because companies recognize that their value comes from controlling you
by jakelazaroff 1y ago
The real answer to the question isn't technical. Local-first apps haven't become popular because companies recognize that their value comes from controlling your data.
In a talk a few years ago [1], Martin Kleppman (one of the authors of the paper that introduced the term "local-first") included this line:
> If it doesn't work if the app developer goes out of business and shuts down the servers, it's not local-first.
That is obviously not something most companies want! If the app works without the company, why are you even paying them? It's much more lucrative to make a company indispensable, where it's very painful to customers if the company goes away (i.e. they stop giving the company money).
[1] https://speakerdeck.com/ept/the-past-present-and-future-of-local-first?slide=15 https://speakerdeck.com/ept/the-past-present-and-future-of-l...