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Is there a future for desktop applications.

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    #31
    Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

    Originally posted by mmaisterrena View Post
    Sorry but there's no long term future for desktop applications, Browsers will be our Operating Systems by 2016, so we better act upon this. Software will depend less and less on the power of our Personal Computers and more on the power of servers , clusters of servers and the infamous Cloud.
    I hope not that the browser will be our OS, but I do agree that there are less fat clients in the future. I think there are comming more dedicated small computers for specific tasks, just for browsing. Dell introduces now a second tiny os on a laptop that is alway active even when the big processor is shut down. Opening the screen you see a fast activated screen with the most important application running such as email.
    Marcel

    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
    ---- Confusius ----

    Comment


      #32
      Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

      Hi,

      I want to thank everyone for taking the time so far to think about this issue and put their two cents to it. I have almost the same thoughts when it comes to this question. What direction should I take, left, right or a marriage of both worlds.

      When talking about cloud computing that is not what I meant. But I personally think that this is the next hype or bubble. The problem is not the technique behind it but the firms. There must be money generated so we are creating something new. Something new is always better and more interesting than what we left behind. Grab some IT-gurus, let them talk about cloud computing and we all follow like sheep's because we all have to eat. I notice that even present things are coming back but now mentioned under the term cloud computing. Old wine in new wine casks.

      And when cloud computing also means that my data is put somewhere over the world I agree with Glen Schild that you should not put your data in a place where you have no control over it. It doesn't care what kind of information. Data at the moment innocent can put you in jail over ten or twenty years when the society changes. At the moment there is no privacy and rules are missing.

      For now I keep the line open for hybrid solutions and embrace the direction Alpha is going. Still I see a market for desktop applications. There is always a demand for isolated environments. As with the money crisis at the moment there will be a data crisis in a few years and everyone will disconnect from the cloud and return to their save isolated environment.
      Marcel

      I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
      ---- Confusius ----

      Comment


        #33
        Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

        This article may be of your interest

        http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10...ag=mncol;posts
        Cheers
        Mauricio

        Comment


          #34
          Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

          Originally posted by mmaisterrena View Post
          This article may be of your interest

          http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10...ag=mncol;posts
          Originally posted by Google keeps tripping over Microsoft's grave
          Google, in short, is what open source wants to be when it grows up. It illustrates what a true services company looks like: not support and other old-world services, but instead Web services. Most open-source companies only strive toward this goal. Google has fulfilled it.
          mmaisterrena, thanks for the link. Yes, but Google doesn't respect my privacy. Iron is a clone of Google's Chrome and the developer of Iron found several places in the source code of Chrome where it communicates with Google. Maybe the author is right in the article about Google in comparison with Microsoft but Google is as bad as Microsoft.
          Marcel

          I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
          ---- Confusius ----

          Comment


            #35
            Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

            I didnt agree 100% with the article but non the less I thought it was interesting.

            Google and Microsoft are bad?
            Which are the good ones?
            Cheers
            Mauricio

            Comment


              #36
              Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

              The article is interesting, no doubt.
              Marcel

              I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
              ---- Confusius ----

              Comment


                #37
                Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                If its all going to the clouds them remember "There's a storm brewin" see this news item
                �There is nothing like a dream to create the future.�
                But then again:
                Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing and to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research!

                Comment


                  #38
                  Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                  In the grocery retail business you never want your technology to stop you from selling product or reordering to stock the shelve. So, even though we have a high dependency on the web/network, all systems function in a offline mode and re-synchronize once the network is back online. Someone mentioned earlier a hybrid of both desktop and web and I think that would make for a viable future.

                  Maybe Hybrid needs to be added to the poll?

                  Idea for V11...
                  I think it would be cool if V11, or an add on tool, would take an existing desktop application and auto-build a default Web Project and keep them synchronized. This way you are mostly maintaining one area of code while the end user/customer has the best of both worlds and is safe from network failures.

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                    In the future wireless Internet connection will be a basic service like electricity and water at least on 1st world countries, in some countries they might just offer it for "free" (taxes will be paying the service). Although there will still be the need for some very specific offline applications the general public will be mostly connected to the web for most of their interaction with computers and mobile devices.

                    We could expect this happening in less than 10 years so I think that dropping desktop support right now wouldn't be the right decision but it will happen eventually.
                    Cheers
                    Mauricio

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                      Three years ago a client of mine spent almost $300,000 trying to convert one of my desktop applications to the web. This was done completely behind my back and I only found out when it turned out to be useless due to the speed of their application. With 10 users accessing the data over the web, you could go to the bathroom before the screen refreshed.

                      The screens contained ALOT of fields and the refresh was agonizingly slow. When I was finally brought in to see if I could fix their problems did I see that the web was where the REAL money was, but it wasn't ready for prime time at that time.

                      I did come up with a solution for them and it worked. I charged them $25,000 for the solution. It was the easiest $25,000 ever EARNED. I say earned because I had the knowledge and they didn't.

                      How did I get their slow application to run at acceptable speeds, even though it still was not as fast as my desktop app? I had them enable Terminal Services on the server. Since the data queries are performed on the local network and then only screen updates are sent to the remote computer. I forget what their application was written in, but it was UGLY!

                      I have many Alpha desktop applications running on Terminal Server and has been very helpful for me since I was not using WAS.
                      ---------------------------------------------------
                      Barry Kucher
                      http://www.411tech.org

                      Comment


                        #41
                        Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                        Just wanted to share this video
                        This might be some of the first steps towards a browser OS

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um7cG...layer_embedded
                        Cheers
                        Mauricio

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                          The announcement of Google Chrome OS could make things very interesting in relation to the future of desktop applications.

                          http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=20815&tag=nl.e589

                          Murray

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                            More on Googles Chrome OS

                            http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory...wlc=1247177627

                            Told 'ya!!
                            Cheers
                            Mauricio

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                              Originally posted by Marcel Kollenaar View Post
                              Yes, as I told above already I agree that the poll could be better formulated.
                              I may be alone in my situation, but I have been using Alpha3-4-5 for many years for myself, on my pc. I was a physician, one person office, doing lots of low cost care ... I could barely afford to update fairly regularly. Just as I got A5 V9 6 weeks ago a colleague started a home care agency and as she was assembling a team within a week, she got me on board. I've been able to put together enough so far to be very useful. The ability to make changes practically on the fly as I enter information and realize I left out this or that, need to present it in a different way, is powerful. I can't wait to get organized enough to really use the power of V9. Desktop applications also have no cost beyond the original purchase price. So, I believe there are a lot of us out there who will use desktop for a very long time - maybe always. I agree with those who have suggested that the poll is too black and white. The major development probably does need to be in non-desktop, but don't throw us out with the bathwater.
                              Thank.
                              Karen

                              Comment


                                #45
                                Re: Is there a future for desktop applications.

                                I think with Alpha we are rapidly approaching a scenario where a team approach will be required. And maybe that's the reason Alpha is sending their apps to a shop in India. They used to refer them to Alpha developers, but for some time now when clients respond to their "we will make the app for you" they are outsourcing it to one or more companies in India instead of referring the clients to long time Alpha developers.

                                Granted, there will be a few (very few I suspect) developers who will have the time or patience to become fluent enough in maybe 5 different areas/languages to develop a full blown custom app used in a web/browser based/non dbf scenario. Now if there were maybe 3 to 5 people on the team who had several years already under their belt dealing with Java, HTML, AJAX, various flavors of sequel, to name a few of the disciplines involved, and all wanted to work together, they could quickly adapt to Alpha's approach.

                                Marcel would certainly be an exception, as would a few others. But unless you are going to work on something pretty simple, you are going to need to be fluent with many disciplines to produce. And not only with the basic syntax, but also the idiosyncrasies of each, which all disciplines have - especially when you bob around from one browser to another one.

                                Most of my apps are very custom. Many deal with screening data entry for Medicare compliance, billing Medicare, and then processing payments received from Medicare. And the same for insurance companies and patients.

                                Applications like this can certainly be done on browser and web based apps that are very customized, and maybe have a thousand lines of code that check each entry that often requires accessing multiple files. I've seen them. But at a Hospital chain where I have apps, they paid over 1,000,000 dollars for the app, and I assure you there was a room full of developers that wrote it.
                                Cole Custom Programming - Terrell, Texas
                                972 524 8714
                                [email protected]

                                ____________________
                                "A young man who is not liberal has no heart, but an old man who is not conservative has no mind." GB Shaw

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