[LINK] The App is Dead (OK Not Really, But The Browser Is Back)

[Rachel Polanskis]

On 14/05/2012, at 14:46, Scott Howard <scott at doc.net.au> wrote:

> On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 9:26 PM, Fernando Cassia <fcassia at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> The problem is twofold:
>> 
> 
> Fourfold, you mean?
> 
> 
>> 1. Web apps work alright as long as you have connectivity all the time
>> 
> 
> HTML5 has significant offline support, and would allow a well-written
> "website" to work equally well offline as a true app in many cases
> 
> 
>> 2. Consumer lose the ability to keep running an older release (just
>> look at the GMail fiasco over the last UI changes).
>> 
> 
> How is this different to the app world today?  Try not upgrading your app
> and you're probably going to find that it stops working pretty quick as
> they update the API and break backwards compatibility.
> 
> 
>> 3. The temptation of app providers will be to build "walled gardens".
>> Ie "Chrome App Store", and extending APIs to certain browsers.
>> 
> 
> I think you've got this backwards!  Apps give the OS manufacturers the
> ability to create these walled gardens.  HTML5 and mobile web gives the
> application writers the ability to break out of that control model. It
> gives them a common standard that exists (or will exist) across all major
> platform, and not a fragmented and often draconian control model that apps
> have today.
> 
> If you think you can't do in HTML5 what you can do in an app, I suggest you
> install either Chrome or Firefox, and then go and play Angry Birds in HTML5
> at http://chrome.angrybirds.com/  If you want to play it offline, no
> problem - just click on the link to do so.  It's only a beta, but it's a
> great example of the fact that HTML is no longer "just a markup language"...
> 
>  Scott.


I don't mean to be hardcore and all that, but you can run Linux implemented in Javascript in a web browser on a first gen iPad if you really want:

http://bellard.org/jslinux/

Give it a few minutes and it seems to run alright ;)
So I guess If HTML is no longer just a markup language, javascript is no longer
just a scripting language,  web browsers can be weapons of mass destruction and an 
iPad might just be able to run any OS you want on it, in some way or another. 



rachel

--
rachel polanskis 
<r.polanskis at uws.edu.au> 
<grove at zeta.org.au>