Stephen’s Statements A little bit of everything from Stephen Duncan Jr, a Software Developer in Portland, Oregon

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Web-Apps vs. Smart-Clients

Scoble supports the Microsoft vision that so-called "Smart Clients" are the future, instead of web-apps. He says:

Why? Well, it isn't hard to see how an app that runs locally would be able to make users more productive.

Beware phrases like "it isn't hard to see" or "obviously". All it really means is "I'm not going to bother to defend my position."

His example? Bloglines vs. a client aggregator, such as Onfolio:

But, comparing the two approaches just seems wacky to me. It'd be like comparing Onfolio to Bloglines. They both have their advantages, but at the end of the day I'd rather have Onfolio or NewsGator.

I think it's a horrible example. I've tried Onfolio, and it didn't last a day on machine. I found it frustrating to use, and with no real advantages. All other client aggregators have met the same fate. Supporters of smart-clients are going to have to come up with some much more compelling use cases for requiring a rich client.