In an uproar that started way back with Paul Graham’s (ya I know I’m reaching back here but bear with me will ya ) post about the death of Microsoft and with it the world of desktop applications. It was this last point that Ryan Stewart over at ZDNet picked up on as he related an IM conversation between himself and a death of the desktop believer. In the post he and Simeon debated the pros and cons of even developing desktop applications in the first place and how the arrival of Apollo from Adobe might just change that paradigm.

Ryan also pointed to a post by Don Dodge who basically said that if growing by $4 Billion a year equals being dead then call me dead

For the record, Microsoft is growing revenues at over $4 Billion a year and is on track for $50 Billion this year. Since when does growing $4 Billion a year equal DEAD? If that is dead I know a lot of companies that would like to be so dead.

Don goes on to tear apart the original link grabbing post by Paul Graham but I got to thinking at that point about this whole Web App vs Desktop App ridiculousness. I think my record here has pretty well been on the side of desktop applications and questioning of the whole Web 2.0 movement. But to clarify for those of you who might be new to WinExtra let me put it this way. There may well be a day in the future when web based applications will be to norm across the computing world but that day is not now and it won’t be for some time to come.

Sure it has its early adopters and evangelists who push the cause with post like Paul’s but the reality is that the whole Web 2.0 movement is an exceedingly small portion of the worldwide computer user base. It exists in the rarified world of the Bay Area and Silicon Valley and the wet dreams of VC’s with cash to burn.

For the rest of the world desktop applications are the norm and for the real world computer user they will be for a long time to come. However rather than just go by my own gut feeling on the matter I decided to head back to my base - the WinExtra Forums and ask them what they thought on the matter. Now before you discount these folks; many of whom have been members for over 6 years, you have to know  that they are a good cross section of your real world computer users. They are techs, consultants, experienced users and homemakers. They live around our globe in places like Canada, rural Iowa, Australia, New Zealand, France and Iceland. they range in ages of early 20’s to late 70’s. They are a cross section.

So I set up a poll which asked “If you had a choice of equal quality applications which would you use 100% of the time ” and gave them two choices - Web Applications or Desktop applications. Here’s a few of the responses

Joan:

I prefer desktop apps even if they are more expensive. I feel much more secure in access to my computer at any time than I do to access to the internet. If my internet access goes down, it might be for several minutes, hours or even days and then I would have no access to my applications.

Billy:

Ditto here. I don’t want to depend on the security and stability of someone else’s machines to be able to work. If I fux0r my computer, I can fix it. If google goes down, I sit and stare at another game of solitare.

Arni:

I am totally against all forms of Web-based applications. Data on my machine is as secure as I can make it; for better or for worse. Data on some web server somewhere is only as secure as the hosting company’s income and integrity will allow. If said company goes bankrupt, corrupt or blown up, I’m up a very specific creek, without a paddle.

Infinidean:

I voted for the web based application on the premise that is of *equal quality* as the desktop application. By that I understand it to mean that the level of security is just as good, that the stability of the company is as solid as owning the software yourself, etc. If all that is the case, the ability to log on anywhere and pick up where I left off is very, very appealing.
In the real world, I don’t care for web applications because they aren’t of equal quality.

You can read all the replies here (you will need to register to post replies or partake in the poll but it is free) but the most common theme so far boils down to two things - security and availability neither of which Web 2.0 can address with any certainty. Currently the response is 80% or better in favor of desktop applications and I really don’t expect that kind of ratio to change between now and when the poll closes on the 23rd.

Even today there is a report on Google disabling some mail accounts and basically losing any attachments for those accounts even when re-enabled. this isn’t even counting the time times where it has been down for hours on end.

Web 2.0 evangelists might like to blow their horn and proclaim the death of the desktop but the reality is that outside of their tiny rarified world the desktop lives and breaths and continues to evolve. there may come a day when the desktop does have to worry but I really think that by that time the desktop will have evolved into something so different that it will all be a null argument.

In the meantime though I will stick with my desktop and the applications that live on it rather than suffer the vagaries of Web 2.0 companies that exist only to be purchased by bigger companies. At least this way I know my data is mine and that regardless of the state of the web I won’t be shuffled back to the dark ages.

Conversation Tags: Web 2.0, software, Windows, Microsoft, desktop