The Disappearing Desktop - It's Real This Time

[Chipp Walters]

Alex Tweedly wrote:

> This would apply (pretty well) to the case of applications, where the 
> Web-Photoshop would be (presumably) a set of  modularized functions 
> which could be cached. I suspect that most users never need more than 
> about 50% of the features in Photoshop (maybe that should be 10% :-), so 
> simple modularization + caching would reduce the 150Mb problem to 
> infrequent downloads of updated modules and the occasional pause when I 
> access a new feature for the first time.

Alex, assuming you're able to cut the size in half, you're still 
downloading 75 Mb!. Even if it was cached, you still would need to 
download the 40Mb file. Ouch.

> This might in fact lead to even more homogeneity of applications - when 
> you use an Internet cafe, you can either use Web-Photoshop which is 
> cached (either on the local machine or on a nearby WebCache) or 
> Web-PicturePaint, the new innovative competitor which is not typically 
> not cached, and therefore performs relatively poorly due to download 
> delays.

Couple of points. I now have 2 work residences..one in rural Texas and 
the other in the mountains in New Mexico. Neither one has realiable 
broadband. The first has a radio wireless system which maxes out at 50 
kbytes/sec while the other has DirecWav, a satellite solution with major 
latency issues. Both are the best I can get w/out having to spring for 
my own private (and very $$$) T1.

I couldn't imagine having to wait for huge downloads (radio wireless) or 
lengthy round trips for XML display info (satellite). In New Mexico, I 
have on occasion taken my wireless laptop into town and sat in a cafe to 
work, but I have to say, trying to program in such an environment is 
very difficult for me. I guess it's another way of saying "Why would I 
ever want to use Web-Photoshop in an Internet Cafe?" I suppose it's a 
cool idea for some, but as far as mainstream is concerned... I kinda 
doubt it.

I think Dan's _Zero Pound_ computer idea is his ideal setup. I'm not so 
sure it's *ideal* for everyone. I still think the idea is far far off 
timewise. But, chatting w/Dan today on the phone, he did have a great 
point: "Just roll up your sleeves, dive-in and create an AJAX app" to 
figure out where the 'gotchas' are.

-Chipp