Sadly, the desktop app is [all but] dead - we’re doomed to Javascript, ASP.Net, C#, HTML, CSS, XML where once we just dragged a field onto a form and were done.

I suppose it’s progress for the user, but in programming terms it’s a complete reverse.

When I am creating desktop applications… it just feels… rough. When I am creating web applications, the edges feel rounded. I enjoy creating both, but seeing as I program for a hobby and not a job, I don’t really have any specific goals set. I find it much easier to program for the web without any real goals than I can for a desktop application.

Not to mention that it seems like for every idea that I get for a new desktop application, there is already something there (and that I like to use.)

Oh, and Marios Alexandrou hit it right on the head when he said that web development feels more satisfying; I find that I enjoy programming for the web because it gets seen an used a lot more than any of my desktop applications. Even if I was part of a big company (Microsoft) that develops a heavily used product (Word), I would probably still feel the same; the web just gets a lot more hits.

Web apps will never reach the performance or power of desktop apps, simply by their nature. Even a high speed connection is ridiculously slower than a low end computer.

The current web development frameworks are mediocre at best when it comes to features, power, access, security, reliability, compatibility, etc.  Okay for minor apps and utils but no where near ready for mainstream applications. 

As a small developer I can’t see my type of apps ever going to Web apps.  Very few people would trust web apps for tasks like business management, accounting etc.

I do see, modular based programs becoming more relevant, where desktop apps can be enhanced with extra features as the end user requires, but more where they download extra modules etc, or perhaps enhance the program with web app options. 

Security is the paranoia of the day, yet people want to move everything online to the unsecured and open environment.  Has any one noticed the security problems related to Java, PHP and similar server based systems?

Desktop apps also allow for greater utilisation of the power of the PC.  Who wants every app to look like Firefox (or IE) ?

Desktop development is by far easier, quicker, more reliable, and offer far greater power to than any web app could possibly offer.  Desktop apps are here to stay for a very long time yet, and I doubt you will see too many giving them up, in exchange for slow, insecure, advert blasted, mediocre  alternatives offered by the so called “Web 2.0″ ( or Web 3, 4, 5, etc), until every home as a multi-gigabit connection and servers and technology are 100% secure, and we can trust the Corporate enterprises with all our data.  (It will never happen!)

I mean, no wonder people think the web is such a screwed-up place…

NST: do you guys have a comment censoring policy? 

Paul Graham has been attracting flame like a magnet since … I’ve first read about him. That’s what he does, that’s what he’s good at, and sometimes he makes a valid point.

And deep beneath the multiple layers and coatings of BS, Paul Graham makes a valid point in his article which you people seem to completely miss.

No one really cares if developers hate or love to make desktop apps. There will always be someone there to accept the challenge of making them, no matter how hard they are to build. Besides, Paul Graham never really said that.

The people that hate desktop apps are (drumrolls, surprise) the users. People want to see computers as appliances and the way desktops and desktop apps are built today totally gets in the way of that.

Despite what some might think, web applications are much harder to build (properly). Regardless, they’re installation free, and the data on your web account persists across multiple machines. Web development also allows for stupidly simple ways to connect the user to other people. Desktop applications can never compete with that.

Users don’t care about computers. They just care about getting their job done and, if possible, being more connected to the ones around them. That’s it.

And they couldn’t care less if you do or do not like building apps for them, they’re selfish and they’ve every right to be. They’re your customers.

You are a fucking monkey.

Moreover, we all know that it is possible to write a plug-in/some weird ActiveX component to run any application in the browser. And it has been done by numerous projects for many years.

In fact, nothing not DHTML/CSS/JavaScript is ‘online’. No sir, in fact, it is a good old desktop application executed in the browser or outside the browser with no difference.

Moreover, pure DHTML/CSS/JavaScript is just too slow and too primitive to create an application. Not to mention a number of issues with different browsers which are too difficult to solve.

Those popular JavaScript/AJAX frameworks look really cool but are they of any threat to a desktop application? Firstly as I said they are lame and slow and there is no way any OS will let online application do anything outside of an applet-like sandbox. Risks are too high.

Now don’t get me wrong, I still love doing web development. My point is just that it’s easier to develop an app when you only have one programming language and one platform to worry about.