Comments on: Developer’s Love Affair With Web Programming

By: Why does Steve Jobs insult us? « The All Mighty Green One

Why does Steve Jobs insult us? « The All Mighty Green One — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:09:16 +0000

[...] Apple’s application standards, right? WRONG. They gave me Flash and AJAX (with whom I’m already pissed off to begin with), and told me it’s better than an SDK. At a develpers conference no less. Where [...]

By: nav1

nav1 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 22:24:16 +0000

Don’t have much to say to you on this, we’ve already had this discussion on the past. All I’m going to say to you is, try to rework a little your post, so that is sounds less like a rant and more about why and how the situation is happening, and were it (in your opinion) will lead us. Cause that’s what I thought I was getting when I saw your title, and were I thought you were going.

So go ahead, make me a believer. Prove to me that your views on this subject have strength.

By: Melvin

Melvin — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:57:34 +0000

My comment was launched from the user point of view. If I was an end user(which I am) I would rather access the application through the web than having to download and install a software to do the same thing, e.g. Net Banking, college registering and scheduling web applications, to name a few, I just find it cool. But I’m aware that most of the applications are desktop applications, without them I would not have my computer up and running, and doing the things that I want and need. Oh and I never said companies = evil.

By: enmanuelr

enmanuelr — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:03:25 +0000

Thanks for the sentiment. Good to be back. Let’s see if I can keep it up.

You made two interesting points, but I’ll refute them both.

First of all desktop apps don’t necessary mean licenses and money and web applications the contrary. There is a good mix of the four possible combinations. While the mass distribution of web apps, is ideal for distributed and free services, that does not mean it cannot cater for-pay-services as well.

37signals.com, docs.google.com (pay version coming soon), etrade.com, just to name a few, are all web applications which are on line and charge for their utilization.

As for the installation, I will agree that the installation is simpler, because web apps need no install, but…

A) Installation has become monkey proof, in thanks largely to the good folks at microsoft. And everyone else catching on.

B) I disagree with the notion that web applications are simple and desktop applications are complex. This has come out of circumstance. Because of the medium a web app is delivered, it has less chance to offer you a complex user interface with a lot of options. This is rapidly changing, take a look at pipes.yahoo.com if you don’t believe me. New technologies (beautiful ajax), and more bandwidth resources are making this possible.

Applications are becoming easier to use, but that is a product of the necessity of business men to reach wider market shares and demographics, as computers everyday stop being an engineering tool and start becoming another house and/or personal appliance. This is constant in desktop and web applications alike.

Finally, we all love to reduce cost. Don’t make devils out of companies just for that reason!

By: Melvin

Melvin — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:28:37 +0000

Oh, by the way… welcome back

By: Melvin

Melvin — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 19:25:06 +0000

Non-web apps need to be installed in a computer in order to work and that would limit the amount of users since a lot of people don’t know how to install a computer software (which means less $$$ for the companies), on the other hand most users DO know how to access the http://www…. besides, non-web apps means more licensing cost, and you know how companies love to reduce cost.