[Sigia-l] Going from Windows GUI to Browser-Based GUI

[Listera]

"Eric Scheid" wrote:

>> This makes me wonder, if you are willing to restrict yourself to IE5/6 then
>> why bother converting from a Windows-only desktop app to Windows-only web
>> app in the first place?
> 
> Gets rid of the "distributing and installing software" problem, a major
> hassle in corporates, as is "supporting multiple versions of clients
> concurrently". It's not all about the users.

Not really. Whether via HTML/HTTP or FTP, the Internet remains the best
medium for distribution. You could make your app extremely easy to install,
practically drag&drop. "Multiple versions" is a red herring, as virtually
any app you use these days has a Prefs setting for auto-checking for
updates; smart client/server or Java software can detect and update
themselves automatically every time they launch. We *are* in the 21st
century, but I don't know about down under. :-)

Look, I'd love to have the web browser as the ultimate runtime client with a
rich GUI that you didn't have to distribute/install, but it ain't the case
*and* the vendor that has the monopoly says it's abandoning the notion of a
standalone browser altogether. I just can't imagine IE, as an embedded part
of Longhorn, becoming more independent, universal, accessible, standards
compliant, etc. I think the opposite is in store. So you do the math.

For web apps, I'm hoping that Macromedia's Royale will materialize soon and
someone will publish an independent study indicating that corporations are
open to the idea of using the Flash client (which apparently has higher
universal penetration rate than even IE) for sizeable web apps.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba