Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: AOL vs. Microsoft -- the Future of Distributed Apps

Author:Robert Cassidy
Posted:6/21/2000; 9:58:53 PM
Topic:AOL vs. Microsoft -- the Future of Distributed Apps
Msg #:18004 (In response to 18000)
Prev/Next:18003 / 18005

It's a safe bet that Microsoft's services and apps won't run in IE 5 for Mac OS X.

Sure, and I can't say that I blame them based on where Apple is going. Apple is going in precisely the same direction, though apparently in a more open vehicle.

If you've noticed, WebObjects is moving to be entirely Java 2 based. Aqua UI can be implemented via Swing. The entire Cocoa API is open to Java. The future of WebObjects appears to be that you can write your business logic in Java hitting the Cocoa APIs as needed and the UI can be developed with RAD tools (as it currently is in Interface Builder) and easily spit out a Java/Swing app which can be distributed like a regular app or across a network via the browser. It will look and feel and work just like any other Mac app, but if you have the bandwidth can be delivered on demand.

I don't see Mozilla as a strong player here. Open source without a strong coordinating player (as Userland could be viewed for Frontier development) so far doesn't seem to lend itself well to consumer-level development. MS can play this game, Apple, Sun, IBM, Oracle etc. but AOL is too fragmented and unclear on the game. They are dealing with Time Warner issues, MSN competition, etc. Mozilla doesn't seem to be a real priority.

Linux and most of it's ilk lack the coordinating player, though IBM more than anyone may be it's savior on this front. Linux still appears no closer to penetrating the desktop, though it's doing nicely in consumer appliances and servers, where I think it will stay until the big players shake out.

Where MS has problems, aside from legally, is that I don't see the culture ever really embracing an open world. They can talk SOAP and Office writing XML format files, but almost nobody believes they will really do it in a manner that works and is open. Without that, NGWS is MS apps first and in some cases only. That closes off a *lot* of the market.

Apple doesn't have an easy time here either. They lack the apps to bring to this model. The have the better technology, IMO, and the apparent willingness to 'do the right thing'. They may not in the end, but so far so good.

I think that if MS stops delivering a good browser (so far IE 5 for MacOS is such a damn good browser that it seems odd worrying about such a thing) that Apple will have no problem providing a replacement in short order. They have OmniWeb nearby which is a fantastic product and a very strong framework on which to build one quickly.

The problem with distributed apps like this is that if you aren't loaded in bandwidth, your app needs to be able to fall back to a classical model and switch back and forth as needed.

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