I've been looking around from time to time for an app which would let me scan books from our collection at home and build a digital library - most useful for loaning books. I never found much on a PC, I did find
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.eleybourn.bookcatalogue&feature=also_installed#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwNCwiY29tLmVsZXlib3Vybi5ib29rY2F0YWxvZ3VlIl0.
In short - yes, apps for desktop seem to be pretty much dead. I can't think of the last time I found a usable desktop application. At most, it's browser plugins like Nagios Checker. There are some "rich" applications or system management applications with rich clients, like InterMapper, but generally it's all web UI.
As Martha says, "It's a Good Thing".
You had me until the last sentence there. Why, precisely, is the death of PC apps a good thing?
ReplyDeleteMoving toward more mobile platforms, taking the compute power back into the mainframe, I think is more flexible for users. Being able to take a (dumb) app on your "smart" phone means you can do the same thing whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, traveling, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteAnd because I want to get rid of my PC. Probably both at home and at work. I'm just following the heard here stampeding to mobile devices - I'm probably really a late adopter here anyhow.
Fair point. For most things, "The Cloud" will suffice, but I'm not ready to give up my PC just yet. Writing compiled code without a full IDE and GUI debugger simply isn't possible anymore; until bandwidth is cheap enough that I can do everything via x-server, I'll be compiling locally.
ReplyDeleteSpecial case - I think we have to let the software programmers have full systems so they can program the cloud.
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