Vista's features look....familiar.

[MetroMan1000]

I'm talking about applications built in AJAX like Google Maps. Google is leading the way in this online applications trend, leading many to believe with other evidence that Google will release an online OS as well.

Other good examples are Google's Writely (like Word) and spreadsheet (like Excel).

Consumer applications will find their way to working independantly of OS because many of them have roadmaps that point to online versions. Pro applications like Photoshop and video editing will probably remain on the HD but I don't see why these too won't move online eventually.

 

[afransen TO]

There are plenty of reasons. One reason is that dedicated on site computing will always be more powerful and versatile than any web-based application (especially if they're free!).

 

[SD2]

I agree with afransen. I could see plenty of applications moving online, but dedicated systems are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I don't think I'd want everything online anyways.

 

[MetroMan1000]

Afrenson: even online applications use online computing. The application is loaded into local memory and used from there, sometimes utilizing resources online, but the main computing power is going on within the user's computer.

 

[afransen TO]

Actually, the problem with many online applications is that they use a client-server model. Minor things like graphics rendering, etc. take place on the client, but a great deal of the heavy-lifting has to be done on the server for a variety of reasons. The reason why this is done is to ensure universal availability (almost every machine has web access and a browser), while also making software upgrades easier to deploy (as the must only be applied to the server).

As a fer'instance, an e-commerce application like Amazon's shopping cart requires the server to produce an entirely new page if you want to do something as simple as change the number of items of a particular type to get and generate a new subtotal. Now, you can do some clever things with javascript to avoid this, but the problem remains as a fundamental part of browser based applications. The compromise between these two will probably come through dynamically downloaded and run applications that are launched through web-browsers that use local system resources more effectively. This is starting to happen, but will take probably close to a decade to come to fruition.