Comments on: The Freedom of Online and Cross Platform http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/2008/03/the-freedom-of-online-and-cross-platform/ Just an average guy trying to drink above average beer. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:01:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Luke http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/2008/03/the-freedom-of-online-and-cross-platform/comment-page-1/#comment-5066 Luke Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:39:19 +0000 http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1320#comment-5066 I guess its a bit the fault of the world wide web. Ever since its existence people have been trying to stuff things in a browser (You trust you browser don't you?). But when it comes to desktop applications, internet (not www) enabled applications never really made it. Ten years ago I though that by 2005 an application like Photoshop would be some tiny desktop app you would download from Adobe and when you start it up for the first time it would download those modules it needed. You don't have to buy the program just pay for usage. But it seems that everyone wants to shove things in browsers (because we trust that good 'ol browser). Maybe the world is just waiting for a better platform. What about Photoshop or Flash as an Eclipse plug-in? Now, that would be cool! I guess its a bit the fault of the world wide web. Ever since its existence people have been trying to stuff things in a browser (You trust you browser don’t you?). But when it comes to desktop applications, internet (not www) enabled applications never really made it. Ten years ago I though that by 2005 an application like Photoshop would be some tiny desktop app you would download from Adobe and when you start it up for the first time it would download those modules it needed. You don’t have to buy the program just pay for usage. But it seems that everyone wants to shove things in browsers (because we trust that good ‘ol browser). Maybe the world is just waiting for a better platform. What about Photoshop or Flash as an Eclipse plug-in? Now, that would be cool!

]]> By: John Dowdell http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/2008/03/the-freedom-of-online-and-cross-platform/comment-page-1/#comment-5065 John Dowdell Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:53:32 +0000 http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1320#comment-5065 Being device-independent requires a good backup policy... that's another way of looking at the whole thing. AIR enables different blends of local and remote storage. We've still got to figure out the design patterns of which types of situations benefit from which styles of local/remote, and how and when to synch data stores. jd/adobe Being device-independent requires a good backup policy… that’s another way of looking at the whole thing.

AIR enables different blends of local and remote storage. We’ve still got to figure out the design patterns of which types of situations benefit from which styles of local/remote, and how and when to synch data stores.

jd/adobe

]]> By: Mark http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/2008/03/the-freedom-of-online-and-cross-platform/comment-page-1/#comment-5064 Mark Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:23:02 +0000 http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1320#comment-5064 While saying that Adobe "fully believe(s) in cross platform deployment for all aspects of our platform" sounds good on paper, it glosses over a few important things. First, cross-platform inherently means lower (lowest?) common denominator in terms of functionality and performance. People and businesses have hundreds of billions of dollars invested in powerful "node" devices...PC's, Mac's, smart phones and other devices. Why would they NOT want to take advantage of the native capabilities from those investments? I have a MAC. Would I rather use an application written for the Mac, with all of the bells and whistles and nice things like, say, hardware acceleration or what's essentially a "dumb terminal" like the Web browser, Flash or AIR? The answer is easy for me. I'd rather have the Mac and/or a PC. The thing that really matters to me is having access to my data and my applications wherever I am. That's a different problem. I'm sure that somebody can build client side applictions that synchronize data between devices and the Web. There are already versions of tha available today. Groove is one. I'm sure there are others. The world constantly ebbs and flows between the pros and cons of centralized processing/data storage and dumb-terminals (Mainframes, the Web and Web browsers)more powerful but harder to maintain smart clients. Rigth now the ease of use and ubiquity of Web-based apps has everyone in a tizzy. Does that mean that we should give up on having PC's and devices that do better? I certainly don't want to. Hey, if I'm in a situation where I don't have my Mac or PC with me or I'm using a Web terminal somewhere, I'd be happy to access my data and do some simple word processing or spreadsheets. But doing that all the time makes my head hurt. Remember: Flash and AIR are just dumb terminals, in one case with local storage. Not a big deal folks. While saying that Adobe “fully believe(s) in cross platform deployment for all aspects of our platform” sounds good on paper, it glosses over a few important things. First, cross-platform inherently means lower (lowest?) common denominator in terms of functionality and performance. People and businesses have hundreds of billions of dollars invested in powerful “node” devices…PC’s, Mac’s, smart phones and other devices. Why would they NOT want to take advantage of the native capabilities from those investments? I have a MAC. Would I rather use an application written for the Mac, with all of the bells and whistles and nice things like, say, hardware acceleration or what’s essentially a “dumb terminal” like the Web browser, Flash or AIR? The answer is easy for me. I’d rather have the Mac and/or a PC.

The thing that really matters to me is having access to my data and my applications wherever I am. That’s a different problem. I’m sure that somebody can build client side applictions that synchronize data between devices and the Web. There are already versions of tha available today. Groove is one. I’m sure there are others.

The world constantly ebbs and flows between the pros and cons of centralized processing/data storage and dumb-terminals (Mainframes, the Web and Web browsers)more powerful but harder to maintain smart clients. Rigth now the ease of use and ubiquity of Web-based apps has everyone in a tizzy. Does that mean that we should give up on having PC’s and devices that do better? I certainly don’t want to. Hey, if I’m in a situation where I don’t have my Mac or PC with me or I’m using a Web terminal somewhere, I’d be happy to access my data and do some simple word processing or spreadsheets. But doing that all the time makes my head hurt.

Remember: Flash and AIR are just dumb terminals, in one case with local storage. Not a big deal folks.

]]>