Everybody is talking about Web 2.0 these days. What is it? Honestly, I just don’t care.
Don’t get me wrong, I think web applications are quite useful. It is nice to be able to access your information anywhere that you have an internet connection, but they are not a panacea, even with the fancy AJAXy Web 2.0. First, they require an always-on internet connection. This is not always realistic. I like WordPress, but if I were on a plane right now I’d be writing this in NotePad. What if your customer has to suffer with a dial-up connection? What if the network goes down (it does happen)? I also use ThinkFree.com for word processing and spreadsheets, but sometimes I just prefer to run my word processor locally (and I actually use ThinkFree Office Desktop for that).
But I’m not saying that desktop applications are perfect. They have to be installed on every machine that you use which can be a pain (and licensing doesn’t always allow it either). They have to be upgraded usually manually, although this can be made somewhat automatic depending on the application.
What do you build your software with?
Do you need cross-platform capability? If so, a web application might be a good bet, but be careful not to lock yourself into being Internet Explorer specific because then you’re not really cross-platform at all.
For web applications, I like to use either ASP.NET or Java Server Faces using Java Studio Creator, but I remain torn between these two technologies. I really like ASP.NET and have done a lot of stuff with it, but developing with it on Mac OS X is not quite feasible yet (yes, I know about Mono). JSF and Java Studio Creator both looks pretty good, but my Java experience is limited. I am spending more time learning about it, though. I’ve bought the Java Studio Creator Field Guide, Thinking in Java and Learning Java from O’ Reilly.
If you need cross-platform desktop applications, then keep in mind that both Java and REALbasic can do this. Java is powerful and complex, but will likely do everything you need. REALbasic is fast, easy, fully native and will likely do most things you need. Java has a bad rap on the desktop, but I don’t make Java desktop apps so I can’t say if it is deserved. REALbasic sometimes gets a bad rap as being a “toy” language, but it is really quite powerful. I thoroughly enjoy using it for creating desktop applications.
I guess I’m just stating the obvious here, but the type of application you create really depends on how it will be used more than anything else.
October 12th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Web applications provide small offices the ability to share data and information without installing or maintaining software or even a local network. I build purely web-apps at this time using Ruby on Rails. I have complete control of the application environment except for the browser compatibility issues you mention.
Downsides and hazards are certainly there though: if one of my users were to be at a client’s site, there may not be internet connectivity. My hope though, is that wireless internet access will become over the years more and more ubiquitous. A hybrid is probably ideal. Build a local client that syncs up with a web-based service (like most email clients).
Here is the thought process that brought me to web-based development:
1. Do your users need to share information with anyone else?
2. If so, do they have an IT or networking staff that can help them connect to a shared server in their enterprise/small office, for example?
3. If not, they likely already have internet access already for email and other tasks. Let’s leverage that.
(4. Plus - it is just more *fun* for me! - Don’t tell anyone though.)
October 12th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
I agree with the above poster. With web apps, not only you don’t have to worry about making things work on every version of windows, you also don’t have to care about advanced programming concepts like pointers, etc. (Which spin my mind, but may be its just me).
Plus, you also don’t have to worry about the software getting pirated. All user data is hosted by your own servers, so pirating is virtually impossible unless someone hacks into your system (very unlikely).
As for the issue of wanting to use notepad if you were on a plane, a desktop application won’t solve that problem either since if you are to write a blog post , nothing can help you without an internet connection. Also, the percentage of your users who don’t have internet access is really low.
All in all its a no brainer for me.
October 16th, 2006 at 10:50 am
With ThinkFree online web 2.0 app you can replace MS Office. Watch my screencast to see how it in action without the need to register. On myuninstalledlife.com I’m trying to uninstall everything from my desktop and replace it with web applications - and I mean EVERYTHING, I just don’t want to replace the apps but also keep 100s of gigs of data online.