The Disappearing Desktop - It's Real This Time

[Alex Tweedly]

Chipp Walters wrote:

> 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!. 

Yeah - but that was ignoring the additional saving from the fact that 
much of the app should reside on the server. Adding that in (and using 
my 10% figure rather than 50% for the typical user's ability to remember 
how to use all the features of Photoshop), I could probably argue that 
down to 5Mb. Still a lot, but bearable given good broadband access. In 
typical daily use, that would all be cached until the app was updated.

> Even if it was cached, you still would need to download the 40Mb file. 
> Ouch.

No. The data resides on the server, only enough is downloaded to 
display. Even that's enough to worry about, but it's far less than 40Mb 
and it can be incrementally downloaded after initial display (e.g. 
progressive scan jpeg of the on-screen image, calculated on the fly at 
the server end).

I don't believe that a "Web-Photoshop" would need to satisfy the digital 
photography professional (mapping professionals aren't using Google Maps 
!). I think to get a commercially successful web-based photography 
editing app you need to satisfy 75% of the population - who start out 
with 3-6M-pixel photos compressed down to 1/2Mb JPEGs, not the pros 
using 32Mb RAW images,.

>
>> 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 wouldn't call Google Maps or Google Earth "commercially successful" 
yet, but they're close. They won't work for you with your connectivity - 
but if I came up with an app that 90% of the population used, I'd be 
content with that :-)

> 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.

Probably the right thing to do ....  though it sounds a little bit like

"dive-in and create a desktop app to figure out where the 'gotchas' are".

"AJAX app" covers as broad a spectrum as "desktop app" - so the gotchas 
will vary between different parts of that spectrum.

-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net



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