Yesterday, I did not think that there would be a future for web applications. But the upcoming Google Gears struck me: we will be able to use web apps offline. Since GMail, GCalendar, GDocs, Zoho, Thnikfree, etc., could be available online and offline, what is the future of desktop apps? Will I need Kontact, Koffice, Gwenview, etc.? And if the desktop environment can be integrated into Firefox or GChrome (like eyeOS), why will I need KDE?

Did you ever read up on the uncanny valley of web UI design? Turns out that web developers developing web apps to mimic desktop apps (not so much GMail, but think MSN email that is almost a browsing duplicate of Microsoft Outlook) find that their little UI ideas actually cost them users. What this shows is that people are not ready for using websites to duplicate their desktop app use. So here's the thing, we're used to the functionality and power that desktop-apps provide us, and at the same time we're being confused at the idea of using a website ... not as a website, but as a program! It's not something we're used to. Obviously over a generation this entire idea could change (website for browsing and clicking links? What you talking about?), but one fact remains: web apps are based on the idea of everybody accessing a single resource via their connection, and desktop apps are based on the idea of using a resource then sharing the outcome via the connection. Removing the difference between them aren't going to make systems easier to manage, therefore determining the survival of desktop apps.

dernier-recours wrote:Yesterday, I did not think that there would be a future for web applications. But the upcoming Google Gears struck me: we will be able to use web apps offline. Since GMail, GCalendar, GDocs, Zoho, Thnikfree, etc., could be available online and offline, what is the future of desktop apps? Will I need Kontact, Koffice, Gwenview, etc.? And if the desktop environment can be integrated into Firefox or GChrome (like eyeOS), why will I need KDE?

KDE and this all Linux thing is just an option. You don't need to use all KDE applications. I'm using KMail instead of GMail's web interface, because it has better desktop integration, and it uses less memory then Google desktop + GMail checker applet. Same situation with Google Reader - Akregator.

You'll need something to run Firefox (or other Google-approved browser) on, and even if that happens to be another browser, you'll need something to run that browser on. Eventually you're going to reach the local GUI. Running Firefox maximized as your only application is silly. That's without getting into the nearly insurmountable hurdles of consistancy and usability.

This has been a cycle. Desktop services get ported to the web, then the Desktop services integrate with the web based services, and add a few features. Not all apps are best captured in a scripting language, or even in a web-based programming language. Security is a major reason. So as you use more and more web services, you realize there are certain things you just can't do without compromising security. Another is speed (this is improving but it will be a while before a script downloaded over a network can be as fast as a native app) Eventually, it settles (more or less) into some equilibrium, bringing the best of both worlds. (or it would if people didn't keep coming up with new features and uses for computers)

Just some observations I've made in my short time as a spectator. I don't got no citations nor qualifications :-P

I think the question is not if an application runs on a server or on one's own desktop computer. The point is that for example GMail's web mailer offers a comfortable tool that I can access from every browser all over the world - with my mobile phone, with my netbook, etc...
And that's the way that traditional desktop applications must go. Is it possible to really comfortably manage my mails/dates/contacts with Kontact from different computers by just doing some mouse clicks? I don't think so.
We'll see what the future brings...

michael4910 wrote:Is it possible to really comfortably manage my mails/dates/contacts with Kontact from different computers by just doing some mouse clicks?

Yes, with any of the supported groupware servers, for example Kolab.

Cheers,
_

Does the "doing some mouse clicks" also include the installation and administration of the groupware server? Then I would be impressed...

michael4910 wrote:I think the question is not if an application runs on a server or on one's own desktop computer. The point is that for example GMail's web mailer offers a comfortable tool that I can access from every browser all over the world - with my mobile phone, with my netbook, etc...

If there were better standards, then you wouldn't need a markup language meant for text be your user interface. With regards to email, I can access mine from around the world ...without a browser. That's because IMAP is a standard that all mail clients honor. Some mail clients may be easier to setup than others, but when 99.97% of my remote email usage is from my laptop, so what? The only time I use webmail is when I'm using someone else's computer.

Storing my data remotely (if you can fix the security and vendor lock-in problems) is a good idea, but webapps don't give me the consistancy, usability, customizability and performance that local apps do. If I may stoop to some fortune-telling, I think the future is going to be a mixture. I think we're going to see desktop apps integrated with the web content via webkit/gecko. We're already seeing the start of this (look at amarok), and as we see more open web services available we'll be seeing more of it.

anda_skoa wrote:

michael4910 wrote:Is it possible to really comfortably manage my mails/dates/contacts with Kontact from different computers by just doing some mouse clicks?

Yes, with any of the supported groupware servers, for example Kolab.

_

I would really like that to be true, but I have found the groupware calendar resources on Kontact to be intolerably buggy. Dates get mangled, reminders don't. This is with the disconnected imap resource.

And I've never been able to get a working install of kolab running. Have tried many times (Kubuntu).