10 Oct
2011
10 Oct
'11
11:56 a.m.
On 10/10/2011 02:27 PM, Shoppa, Tim wrote:
What? Do you know what X11 *does*? Surely you do. I know who you
are, and I know a bit about your (gigantic) level of experience.
> How,
exactly, is running something in a web browser "more
> versatile" than running a purpose-built app with a GUI? WTF?
To me a "purpose built app with a GUI" is the very definition of
"vendor lock-in" and "A PC for every function". To me "vendor lock-in" means "look you
have the versatility of
running it on this one PC with a mouse and a keyboard and if you want
to do it any other way you can pay us for as many copies as you
want!".
I'm hearing the twilight zone theme here. X11 certainly doesn't work
that way. Windows and MacOS X DO work that way, as does the Wayland
system, which is one way in which they suck. So, to completely avoid
vendor lock-in and "a PC for every function", I've used (and will
continue to use) X11.
Whereas a web interface means that the display
terminal and
application server are now decoupled with a strong implication of
scalability up the wazoo. (I know, it's all too easy to make it
unscalable, or to embed Windows Controls in a web application and tie
the browser to a specific Windows build.) It also implies that
multiple applications are accessible simultaneously just by opening
more browser windows - and means you don't have to swap 10,000 PC's
every time you upgrade the central server.
...which is exactly what X11 achieved decades ago! Except, of
course, it's not limited to the abuse of HTML and HTTP for
other-than-intended uses, and it doesn't rely on tons of
runtime-interpreted code, and doesn't produce slow, clunky,
barely-usable interfaces like web browsers do when used for most
anything other than...well, you know, web browsing.
People used to give Richard Stallman static for directly using emacs
as his shell as specified in /etc/passwd. Shit, now people want to do
it with a web browser, and nobody seems to get why this is a patently
stupid idea on about a dozen different levels. WTF?
I'm not saying there
aren't some really sucky webpages out there but custom
roll-your-own-GUI-inside-the-web-page design seems to be very much on
the decline, thank god.
Again with the "twilight zone" theme. These interfaces are on the
rise, in a roaring way, to a tremendous degree. Google Apps and their
ilk, GWT-based apps, AJAX, "Web 2.0" etc etc etc all fall under this
category. Everything is going that way. It is a huge, bloated,
bandwidth-wasting, cycle-wasting mess.
Wow what a weird-ass thread.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA