[Baypiggies] native GUI vs. web browser

[Paul McNett]

Heikki Toivonen wrote:
> Keith Dart wrote:
>> So, what is the future of native GUI development? Is there one, or will
>> every custom interface move to the web technologies?
> 
> I think there will always (well, for the foreseeable future at least) be
> a market for native (GUI or otherwise) applications. Currently bandwidth
> is a pretty effective limiter for some data intensive applications.
> There are also people that don't trust anyone with their data, for whom
> native applications are the way to go. Security is another point which
> native applications can have as selling point.
> 
> But I do agree that for the majority of applications "browser-based" is
> the future. I would in fact argue that that has been the case for
> several years already. I see mobile devices currently bucking that
> trend, but as devices get more powerful and (mobile) browsers more
> capable, mobile applications will go the way of the desktop applications.

I see mass-market, social, freeware/adware apps being mostly web-based, but vertical 
and niche-market / commercial apps resisting moving to the web, at least completely.

In the latter case, I see traditional desktop GUI apps connecting to web services for 
perhaps part of the equation, but I think desktop apps will be around for a while, 
like it or not.

The current trend is no doubt toward web apps, but there will still be strong demand 
for desktop apps in the near future, and desktop apps will never completely die out, 
even though web apps could be implemented on a standalone system quite readily, even 
today.

Paul