Smackdown: Web vs. Desktop Apps
Jeff Atwood argues that web applications, as limited as they are, may be good enough in most cases:
- The typical user only touches a fraction of the functionality in most applications. Switching to an online spreadsheet like EditGrid or WikiCalc is hardly a catastrophic loss when you only used 1 percent of Excel’s functionality to begin with.
- Online applications may be awkward, but they do one key thing that local applications can never do: embed snippets of live content in a web page. Instacalc may never be Excel, but so what? It’s a completely different use case. Instacalc is ideal for embedding bite-sized, interactive nuggets of calculation next to a paragraph of text on a web page. It’s the YouTube of spreadsheets.
- … I see a world of large applications that are inappropriate for most users. It’s high time we scaled down and scaled back. If anything, this is a beneficial side-effect of the limitations inherent to the platform.
I’m a huge fan of browser applications — I practically live in Firefox. But even web workers have to leave the web sometimes for the more powerful landscape of the desktop. I use Adium as my IM aggregator, MS Office for spreadsheets and word processing, TextMate for text editing, and Fireworks to edit images. Occasionally I play music through iTunes.
Lately, though, there’s been some move to a hybrid application model that combines web and desktop in the same app. Adobe’s Apollo offers a web development paradigm for desktop applications while Trillian’s next-generation web client shows the way to browserless web apps with operating system integration.
What’s your opinion on web interfaces vs. desktop UIs? What do you think about new hybrid models like Apollo and Trillian’s web client? What desktop applications do you continue to use and what tasks have you moved online?
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
New stuff and ideas are still to come as nowadays we have some web applications behaving as desktop ones and some desktop applications integrationg as many web functionality as they can.
Its left to user to decide where to go, which one to choose.
It’s a little weird for me to see this trend move the way it has given that back in the day, this is exactly what applets were supposed to do and Microsoft desktop apps were supposed to die a horrible death. Java got moved to the back end and now Javascript is becoming the key to making reactive web pages that behave like desktop apps. Does anybody else remember that applet-based desktop environment that I think WordPerfect was supposed to use to slay Bill Gates?
I posted a comment pretty late in Jeff’s comment cycle that wondered about where this might be going given accessibility and cross-device issues:
—Pete
http://nerdguru.net
I believe that most applications will be (and already have been) shifted to web-based interfaces. I think this makes sense on a number of levels:
- Data Backup Becomes a Non-Issue — If my applications and associated data are stored online with the service provider, there is less of a need for me to worry about backing up my data. For example: I can be reasonably assured that Google will always take good care of my data.
- Location is Irrelevant — I don’t want to worry about what computer I am using at any particular time. The files I need are on my computer at work? Damn, guess I can’t do any work from home today… Web applications solve this problem by providing me access anywhere, anytime, and from any computer.
- Updates and Patches are Transparent — When a new version of Office comes out, I have to plop down another few hundred dollars and get it installed/upgraded. Web applications do this transparently, meaning that I can always be assured that I am using the most up-to-date version of the software without the hassle of upgrading.
- Web Development is Advancing — With the onslaught of coding advancements in JavaScript and HTML (think AJAX and DHTML), web applications are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from desktop applications. UI feedback in web apps is becoming instantaneous, giving way to all sorts of creative online interfaces.
As web-based applications improve, I believe there will be a fundamental shift in the definition of “Operating System”. Is there a point where the only thing a person needs on their computer is a web browser? I sure hope so…
Aaron
@Aaron: your first and third points have nothing to do with Web-based applications. They have everything to do with Internet-aware applications. Rich Internet applications, made in Flash/Flex, XUL, or whatever, can store data at providers and can be automatically updated. Your second point (available from any PC) isn’t 100% true even for Web-based applications (many places restrict where Web browsers can go via proxy servers), and Flash/Flex and XUL work as well as HTML/AJAX from that standpoint as well.
I believe that most are correct in that web apps will become more pervasive in the very near future, but just like I don’t ever see us going to a paperless society, certain desktop apps will never go away. I can’t possibly imagine doing Photoshop work on the web because of file sizes and the progams own heft, but even small apps like calculators and calendars are better on the desktop. My OSX Dashboard, albeit web related, is essential for me and I don’t necessarily want to open a browser just to find out the date, weather or look up the spelling of a word.
I love the concept of web applications. I think they are really becoming powerful competition for desktop equivalents when it comes to the AVERAGE user.
I recently reinstalled my OS on my home PC and I did not install an IM client or an office suite. Instead I’m using Google Docs for word processing and Meebo for IMs. I am wondering how long I can go before I do someething that requires me to install one of those two kinds of applications onto my desktop.
We make POS and Video rental software. Although we’re doing things that are web aware, sending and receiving email, transmitting files… that kind of thing, most of our stores don’t want the internet even in their stores (mostly because they don’t have the expertise to stop their clerks from getting on the net).
And they sure don’t want to have to worry about their store shutting down because of a problem with their ISP or a cable.
I have noticed some apps on the web are getting very sophisticated. And for certain apps the web is the only place to be.
But the desktop has it’s place, and I believe a balance will be struck at a certain point to where people will understand when they should have a desktop app or a web app.
I for one don’t trust putting my customers personal data on the internet, even though I put my info out there all the time. Can you imagine a rental store that rents adult video’s and they tell their customers they are being stored on the net!
No, the desktop isn’t going the way of the dodo bird anytime soon IMHO.
That depends on what side your bread is buttered on. What I like, and my preference ,is desktop integrated or blended with web, similar to skype. I would like to see more office win32 client stuff blended with p2p channels and social networks. I want my data, I want to move my data without limits of smpt, and I want it streamed in a single encrypted package…I want hybrid p2p that uses a super node to transmit to multiple users with a singe upload , a huge bandwith savings. I want to be able to drag and drop tables, objects, and anything else in my workspace to groups of users, all streamed and packages nicely with a little rijnadel for security…all this in a web app? The desktop is the center of my universe as I still write code with a compiler.
I agree with daveconrey that some apps like Photoshop or video-editing will likely remain on the desktop, but I’m all for web apps that do spreadsheets, word processing, web development, etc. I like that the limitations of web-based apps often reduce the software to what’s really important. I recently used Zoho writer to take class notes and I thought it was terrific. Later, while on a different PC at the library, I was able to call up my notes and continue working in a new location. That holds great deal of appeal for people on the go.
I consider myself to be a “run of the mill” user of MS Word and Excel in my job. I recently installed Google Docs and Spreadsheets for a test drive. Prognosis: they are toys. I could not get to first base in re-building typical spreadsheets that I use. The word processor was a joke. MS has now raised the bar higher with Office 2007 — I took to the new “Ribbon GUI” like a duck to water two weeks ago when I was issued a Vista laptop at work.
It’s not clear to me that Google will be able to improve these apps enough to be useful in their current html/javascript technology. Perhaps they will do a Flash/Flex version of Docs and Spreadsheets someday to get some richness into these apps…