The death of the desktop application has been greatly exaggerated. Even a web-application zealot like myself will admit that.
The one example always given against its death is Photoshop. Web-browsers are too slow to replicate Photoshop. It is unlikely that improving JavaScript and DOM rendering, super-fast/low-latency broadband or Flash/Silverlight plugins are going to cut the mustard either.
So when Google Chrome came out I thought it was a nice improvement in the performance and stability departments but I didn’t think it was going to change software as we know it. Maybe, just maybe, it would be good enough to really replace Word or Excel. But never Photoshop.
I may have been wrong.
Google announced Native Client this evening; run native-code in the browser on the client-side. Simple as that.
Google Chrome + Native Client could potentially replicate Photoshop in the browser. I say this without seeing much of Native Client and with it being very early days. But the signs are clear. Chrome’s independent processes are perfect for this. I’d say they built it that way knowing they were going to release Native Client down the line.
Throw in Google Gears and you have offline plus, potentially, the secure local-resource (files, webcam, USB, GPS etc.) access Native Client needs.
Security will be a huge challenge for Native Client but it can be done.
So here we are. Web-application deployment nirvana and desktop-application power. The next version of Photoshop could be delivered via www.photoshop.com.
