RE: apps vs. web sites (was RE: VS 2012)

 Apps are like gadgets, and they do have their place. Gadgets that I always have running include:

- PC Status (CPU, Memory, temps, drive space)
- Network health (pings, latency, and bandwidth usage)
- Weather
- Time (multiple time zones)
- Football game schedule and scores
- News & RSS feeds

Basically the stuff that makes my monitor a HUD while I'm at my desk. I have Chrome extensions for:

- Google Voice
- Google Analytics
- SEO tools

I have these things as gadgets because I don't *want* to have to navigate to some site every time I want some bit of information or task.

"I like web apps" is *another* "the web is a hammer, and everything is a nail" mindset. I like things on the web that make sense on the web (I access them from various locations, want to share with numerous people, consume ephemeral info, etc). I like things on my desktop that don't need to be on the web (Visual Studio, OneNote, Office docs)... There's also tons of room for Microsoft's stupidly abandoned S+S play, or as I call it: "The Outlook/Exchange model" where an app on the desktop uses cached cloud data so you get the best of everything. Visual Studio + cloud source control is the same thing.

But I'll tell you - yesterday I watched my boss lose two hours of work in a web-based document editor thanks to a network glitch. My notes in OneNote on my desktop - no problem.

Philo
Philip B. Janus, BSEE, JD

Author:
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Philo's Law: To learn from your mistakes, you must first realize you are making mistakes.
________________________________
From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Mike [[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 4:50 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: apps vs. web sites (was RE: [OT] VS 2012)



What are apps, but the new Flash?

I'm not down on them, and someone will eventually do something amazing, but I don't expect I'll be leaving my browser much anytime soon.

I understand apps on a mobile phone.  I just spent the past half hour using apps on a friend's iPhone, and even though they were uniformly horrible (except for the pictures), the web versions were even worse, due to formatting issues on such a small screen.

Mike