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Have any web-based applications replaced desktop apps for you?

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steeladept:
I am firmly in the "no use for online apps" camp.  I don't use any free mail services, tried Gmail but hated it instantly and never looked at it again.  For email, a portable install of Thunderbird on my flash drive is perfect for me.-Tekzel (October 15, 2007, 10:55 AM)
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I have to agree with Tekzel on all this.  I am finding more and more a 2GB encrypted flash drive, and access to a machine (preferably with internet access, but not critical) is all I need for most of my work and fun.  I use Yahoo mail mainly for the portability and spam filtering and because I hate the GMail interface.  It also allows me to give one address regardless of where my connections are coming from.  I can then use any internet connection and OWA or INotes (if absolutely necessary) depending on the mail box I need access to.  Yahoo currently just forwards to an Exchange server with OWA access so it works out.  If I change my service, my job changes, etc., I just change where Yahoo points to and keep rolling.  If it is a user I want to be able to contact me (instead of a dealer/supplier etc.) I give them the yahoo address instead of the local server with the local server as a secondary address.  All my mail from Yahoo is filtered for SPAM and my good emails get forwarded wherever I go.  It works for me.  That is the extent of my "dependence", and there is even a backup to that!
No. To me the web based app thing is mostly a fad and like all fads, it will die.  I could be wrong.  Time will tell.
-Tekzel (October 15, 2007, 10:55 AM)
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Hmmm...While I truely hope you are right Tekzel, I fear you are not.  The cost and security (read licensing enforcement capabilities) benefits to the developer are VERY strong.  If you stop paying the price (whatever that is - subscription, advertising, whatever) it is simple to restrict access and prevent future useage until you move to comply.  That is a rediculously powerful incentive to many developers, especially for profit developers.

Personnally, I am looking forward to the day where we can all have HUGE USB sticks carried with us wherever we go with ALL our data, OS, Proggies, etc. and we just connect our stick to a generic terminal and run with it.  I don't think we will ever get there, too much against it especially with the gaming industry and their hardware requirements, but I am looking forward to it optimistically anyway.

Ralf Maximus:
When computers were handmade, they were rare.

When memory was expensive, programs were small.

When bandwidth was precious, big programs stayed in the box.

When bandwidth gets cheap and big... what happens next?

Perhaps the next big revolution will be a kind of distributed computing where it's not how much horsepower your box has, but how many processors you can rent or lease.  Instead of metered phonebills, you'd get multi-processor bills. 

"Honey, have you been performing fluid dynamic simulations again?"

With enough bandwidth neither the software NOR the hardware has to be contained on your desktop.  Software and data resides everywhere like an organized ocean, ready to be accessed by anyone, anytime using minimal physical equipment.

All you'll need is your Plutonium Visa Card.

jeffjeff:
I use:
Google for mail, RSS and use their Documents more and more. If I had any big secrets I probably wouldn't use them in those cases. But its important to make local copies even though I almost always had been able to get to them.

Delicious with Firefox

Moodle- learning management system

vradmilovic:
GMail's spam filtering works pretty well (they have much more training data than any local e-mail client), but I use it with Thunderbird/POP3. I rarely open web client.

I also recently started using Google RSS Reader. I'm reading feeds once or twice per day and there's no need to have application active all the time just for this. Additionally, it sounds natural for me that feeds are accessed through web browser.

wasker:
Only del.icio.us to store bookmarks (I need to share same stuff between home and office) and also I regularily use SkyDrive for sharing files and tinyurl.com to make shortcuts for files on SkyDrive. For online forums I use imageshack.us to host images I don't care of.

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