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People like to say that the web is replacing the desktop, but is this really the case? When I look at the web applications I use on a regular basis (Amazon, cra

People like to say that the web is replacing the desktop, but is this really the case? When I look at the web applications I use on a regular basis (Amazon, craigslist, LinkedIn...) I cannot think of a desktop app they have displaced. I cannot say, for example, that "I stopped using desktop application X because Amazon is so much better". On the other hand, my trips to the book store are less frequent because of Amazon. So I would argue that web applications are popular today because they are a convenient way for people to use a range of services traditionally offered by brick and mortar businesses. Edit: I also don't understand why people bother building Photoshop "clones" for the web. If the goal is to clone an existing application and just move it to the web, what actual problem is being solved?

jkuria 17y ago
There is a photoshop clone for the web that is really successful: www.picnik.com
- coliveira 17y ago
  Fantastic. Doesn't have all features of PS, but it is way easier to use.
- steveklabnik 17y ago
  Also, Aviary's stuff is really, really cool.
todrules 17y ago
So, you don't bank online or pay bills online? I know I do. This is taking X desktop application away from a CSR and providing this functionality directly to customers over the web. And pretty much any ordering system done on the web has replaced the traditional desktop application that a rep would have had to use previously as you called/faxed/mailed in your order. Also, there's mail and Office-type apps that are solely web-based as well. Further, (and this is just in my company so take it FWIW) but our ticekting system has moved to a web-based system. Same with our Leave/Absence tracking system (with a SAP backend). I could go on and on.
jimbokun 17y ago
When a new computing platform arrives, it usually doesn't really replace the existing applications one for one. It makes the old applications less relevant. A blog is not a replacement for a word processor. But many of the things you might have written, printed out, copied, and distributed to people you wanted to see it, you just type into your blog and you're done with it. And blogs make new kinds of writing possible that wasn't before, meaning even less time spent in front of a word processor. When several people needed to work on the same document before, they put a word processing document on a network share, or just emailed it around to the next person who had to work on it. Now, a wiki makes a lot more sense for editing and sharing that kind of data. A desktop money management application can't compete with a web application that can keep your transactions up to date for all of your online financial accounts. I suppose you could implement this as a desktop application, but most of the power comes from the data being available from the web, so what's the point? People used to use a spreadsheet or desktop database to store and process their financial data, but it makes more sense for the logic for handling your financial data living close to that data, in a way that a lot of people can benefit from without typing in all the formulas themselves. So the use cases for the average person to use a spreadsheet diminish. The end result, is that people don't really care whether they have a direct replacement for their old apps. As long as they have a convenient way to meet the end result (communicate, manage finances), that's all that matters.
cschep 17y ago
There are at on of people that can't/don't want to afford Photoshop. Also, downloading/installing it could actually block them from using it. Now they can just blast over to a "website" and get the basic functionality...that's a problem being solved in my mind. And a worthy one.
prodigal_erik 17y ago
> If the goal is to clone an existing application and just move it to the web, what actual problem is being solved? As soon as you sit down at a different computer, neither the application nor the work you did with it are available to you. That's a problem solved by hosting it on the web, though there are other ways to do it.

jkuria 17y ago

There is a photoshop clone for the web that is really successful: www.picnik.com

coliveira 17y ago
Fantastic. Doesn't have all features of PS, but it is way easier to use.
steveklabnik 17y ago
Also, Aviary's stuff is really, really cool.

todrules 17y ago

So, you don't bank online or pay bills online? I know I do. This is taking X desktop application away from a CSR and providing this functionality directly to customers over the web. And pretty much any ordering system done on the web has replaced the traditional desktop application that a rep would have had to use previously as you called/faxed/mailed in your order. Also, there's mail and Office-type apps that are solely web-based as well. Further, (and this is just in my company so take it FWIW) but our ticekting system has moved to a web-based system. Same with our Leave/Absence tracking system (with a SAP backend). I could go on and on.

jimbokun 17y ago

When a new computing platform arrives, it usually doesn't really replace the existing applications one for one. It makes the old applications less relevant. A blog is not a replacement for a word processor. But many of the things you might have written, printed out, copied, and distributed to people you wanted to see it, you just type into your blog and you're done with it. And blogs make new kinds of writing possible that wasn't before, meaning even less time spent in front of a word processor. When several people needed to work on the same document before, they put a word processing document on a network share, or just emailed it around to the next person who had to work on it. Now, a wiki makes a lot more sense for editing and sharing that kind of data. A desktop money management application can't compete with a web application that can keep your transactions up to date for all of your online financial accounts. I suppose you could implement this as a desktop application, but most of the power comes from the data being available from the web, so what's the point? People used to use a spreadsheet or desktop database to store and process their financial data, but it makes more sense for the logic for handling your financial data living close to that data, in a way that a lot of people can benefit from without typing in all the formulas themselves. So the use cases for the average person to use a spreadsheet diminish. The end result, is that people don't really care whether they have a direct replacement for their old apps. As long as they have a convenient way to meet the end result (communicate, manage finances), that's all that matters.

cschep 17y ago

There are at on of people that can't/don't want to afford Photoshop. Also, downloading/installing it could actually block them from using it. Now they can just blast over to a "website" and get the basic functionality...that's a problem being solved in my mind. And a worthy one.

prodigal_erik 17y ago

> If the goal is to clone an existing application and just move it to the web, what actual problem is being solved? As soon as you sit down at a different computer, neither the application nor the work you did with it are available to you. That's a problem solved by hosting it on the web, though there are other ways to do it.