What are they? The future. The extent to which we constrain ourselves to HTML/JS nowadays is borderline ridiculous. AIR exists and it works. It lets you build

What are they? The future. The extent to which we constrain ourselves to HTML/JS nowadays is borderline ridiculous. AIR exists and it works. It lets you build user interfaces on a much more powerful platform and these apps will run equally well inside a browser tab or a desktop window. The problem with AIR (and silverlight) is the vendor lockin, nobody likes to rely on proprietary technology. Free alternatives will emerge as we push the limits of HTML further.