Let's talk NeXT - Re: Steve Jobs -2011

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!". 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. To me a web interface is way preferable to say a 3270 for filling forms. I know, the hot-shot mainframe app people had some pretty slick user interfaces on the 3270's for some popular mainframe applications. I've seen good ones and I appreciate them. But the vast majority of 3270 user interfaces sucked rocks. 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. Tim.