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It's Time for Server-Side Browsers

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Re: It's Time for Server-Side Browsers

#41

Post by cturner »

stcredzero wrote: post #23
cturner wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not seamless though, and that makes it a very different idea. He's talking about it working at the same level as a browser where it sees if you have HTML5, and if not falls back to flash, dynamically. I can't imagine it being a high priority - fiddly, low return, creates huge performance issues. Lots of basic problems - you don't want someone supplying input to a game over a (latent) network. You don't want to b…

You can implement this (somewhat wastefully) using VirtualBox and VNC.

My point above is that there's a vast difference between (1) something being possible by a tech-savvy user spending time to jury-rig a solution, and doing it on a case-by-case basis and (2) the same kind of thing being done as a commodity - something that runs commonly on the platform with no effort on the part of end-users.

Re: It's Time for Server-Side Browsers

#42

Post by stcredzero »

cturner wrote: post #41
stcredzero wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can implement this (somewhat wastefully) using VirtualBox and VNC.

My point above is that there's a vast difference between (1) something being possible by a tech-savvy user spending time to jury-rig a solution, and doing it on a case-by-case basis and (2) the same kind of thing being done as a commodity - something that runs commonly on the platform with no effort on the part of end-users.

Maybe there's not as much difference as you might think. Look up Paul Farnell and Litmus. You can listen to his Mixergy interview from January.

Re: It's Time for Server-Side Browsers

#43

Post by mukyu »

kroc wrote: post #40
mukyu wrote: post #11

Could someone translate what this is actually trying to talk about into something clear? This blog post reminds me of someone on weed trying to relate to you this profound idea to you and rambles on stream of consciousness style. He wants there to be no 'centralization' (that is, servers) and have things run on a cloud of people's web browsers, yet at the same time it still talks to mysql somewhere? We won't need any…

What I’m proposing is that we replace PHP with a web browser so that the code we run on the server could be the same code we run on the client. To make it so developers only have to learn one language, one set of technologies. That will eventually lead to decentralised applications, but in the mean time will simply lay the groundwork for it whilst people continue with the centralised model. There will always be a nee…

With desktop applications you can use the same language/code on both the client and the server side. That did not lead to decentralization. Well, that isn't cross platform you might say. However, Java mostly covers that and still it did not happen. There are also numerous tools that allow you to write in one language (Java with GWT, some lisp one I cannot name) that runs on the server side that automatically generates equivalent javascript for the client.

There is no reason (and you provide no argument) that using the same code on the client/server results in decentralization. Furthermore, we have the fact that it already exists and still did not lead to decentralization.

Re: It's Time for Server-Side Browsers

#44

Post by jacabado »

marbletiles wrote: post #39
jacabado wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your answer. It's a valid example but I guess it doesn't prove the point that the web isn't up to the job of serving applications. Maybe in mobile that's true, maybe mobile it's the future. For now I would counterargue that web app market is much bigger than the mobile app market. For whoever downmoded me RTFM: http://paulgraham.com/road.html . If there is a new road ahead write a new road ahead essay c…

I don't think your lack of understanding entitles you to demand someone write a 2000-word essay for you. But, briefly, many of the points in Road can still be right with the conclusion being wrong. Yes, data is more important than computer, and server-side computation and storage of data etc is increasingly important. But the web as the client interface? Network-aware native apps are trumping all over it. These aren'…

I don't feel entitled to demand anything, I was just asking :).
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