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The browser is the simplest interface for presenting and connecting disparate applications and information. No, it won't go away in the next hundred years.

vorador 17y ago
Actually it's far from simple. Do you find the back button easy to use ? And, speaking of applications, I don't think that the webapp is a better methaphor than the desktop app.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  What about desktop as browser or browser as desktop? What if you had something like a desktop with icons on it. You double-click on the icon, and it starts the webapp, which just appears in its own window. The webapp can be cached on the local machine, with a check for new versions on startup. You can "bookmark" web apps while normally browsing the web by hitting "Save Shortcut to App". After that, you don't have to open the web browser any more. The shortcut authenticates you and brings up a toolbar-less non-browsing "browser" window to run the app.
  - vorador 17y ago
    Then it wouldn't be the browser as we know it. The browsers are misused because originally they were a document viewing system.
    - stcredzero 17y ago
      What's so sacred about the browser as we know it? People want to use web apps. Why not make it convenient for them?
      - deleted 17y ago
        [deleted]
      - vorador 17y ago
        I'm not sure that people want/use as much web apps as you think. Most of the web is still "documents", and if you want an browser adapted for webapps, then use prism (http://prism.mozilla.com/ http://prism.mozilla.com/)
        stcredzero 17y ago
        Let me put it this way: does it make that much of a difference to the user if an app is a web-app or local? I think they're only aware of it insofar as sometimes they can't do what they want because the network is down. That, and they know that sometimes they can get at the same data from any networked computer. Prism is exactly what I had in mind!
        vorador 17y ago
        I think that the main problem of webapps at the moment is that webapps are like islands : generally you can't get your data out of the webapp, you can't take the data of a webapp to put it into another one.

vorador 17y ago

Actually it's far from simple. Do you find the back button easy to use ? And, speaking of applications, I don't think that the webapp is a better methaphor than the desktop app.

stcredzero 17y ago
What about desktop as browser or browser as desktop? What if you had something like a desktop with icons on it. You double-click on the icon, and it starts the webapp, which just appears in its own window. The webapp can be cached on the local machine, with a check for new versions on startup. You can "bookmark" web apps while normally browsing the web by hitting "Save Shortcut to App". After that, you don't have to open the web browser any more. The shortcut authenticates you and brings up a toolbar-less non-browsing "browser" window to run the app.
- vorador 17y ago
  Then it wouldn't be the browser as we know it. The browsers are misused because originally they were a document viewing system.
  - stcredzero 17y ago
    What's so sacred about the browser as we know it? People want to use web apps. Why not make it convenient for them?
    - deleted 17y ago
      [deleted]
    - vorador 17y ago
      I'm not sure that people want/use as much web apps as you think. Most of the web is still "documents", and if you want an browser adapted for webapps, then use prism (http://prism.mozilla.com/ http://prism.mozilla.com/)
      - stcredzero 17y ago
        Let me put it this way: does it make that much of a difference to the user if an app is a web-app or local? I think they're only aware of it insofar as sometimes they can't do what they want because the network is down. That, and they know that sometimes they can get at the same data from any networked computer. Prism is exactly what I had in mind!
        vorador 17y ago
        I think that the main problem of webapps at the moment is that webapps are like islands : generally you can't get your data out of the webapp, you can't take the data of a webapp to put it into another one.