In my search for some kind of memory-enhancing, panacean note-keeping application, I’ve had to confront again what is becoming an increasingly common conundrum: do I want a solution that lives on the desktop or on the network?
Despite the significant leaps forward seen in online applications in recent years — Google Docs and the 37signals suite of apps, to name just a few — I still find most of this stuff slower, less efficient and less integrated with the way I prefer to maintain my own personal information ‘cloud’ than desktop software.
Given the choice, I’ll almost always opt for the native speed of an application written in Cocoa, the ability to call it up with suddenness and satisfaction via Quicksilver or from the Mac OS X Dock, and seamless, peer-level cohabitation with the data stored inside my Mac OS X Address Book, iCal other local data resources.
Whether There’s Any There There
I also prefer the fact that data stored in a desktop application is available regardless of whether I can access the Internet at any given moment. This is an advantage that means a lot to me, though it’s also an idea that has often been dismissed by various forward-thinking interaction experts. They contend that we as users are detached from the network far less often than we might think, that even though today’s network access is far from pervasive, we’re all online enough by now that Web applications are as viable a solution for our needs as desktop software.
To be fair, in several months of happily using the online task manager Todoist, I can attest to that, at least in part. Storing my to-do items online has been much less problematic than I had expected; there have only been a handful of instances in which I’ve been without net access when I truly needed it, or when I’ve wished I had my data on the desktop with me while it’s been stranded online.
Nor have I had trouble with the one admittedly inarguable usage problem to which network-dependent applications have as yet no real answer(Adobe Air nothwithstanding): being stranded from one’s data while in flight. This frequently cited drawback is for me essentially chimerical; I just don’t do work on planes anymore, period. I refuse. Problem solved.
Soft Art
Still, I like desktop software better than online software. It’s not just faster, (marginally) more efficient and better integrated, but it’s also more fun and more creative. In conversation, my friend Amit Gupta has argued that we’re in a phase of human achievement in which software should be considered a kind of art, and I think that’s truer on the desktop than in the browser. There’s something engrossing and marvelous about, say, the Macintosh portmanteau launcher Quicksilver that makes the decorated directories sensibility of most Web applications pale in comparison.
Such esoteric boosterism aside, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m essentially conservative about this stuff. Desktop software has the potential to be wonderful, but in truth the reason it feels right to me is because it’s what I learned when I was learning to use a computer. Old habits die hard.
Meaning: it’s not my contention that there’s something inherent to the Web that forbids it from ever becoming as engaging as the desktop. It’s just my humble opinion that the desktop still outshines the browser. For now. There will be some amazing application design native to browsers in the coming years; anyone who’s used the almost absurdly capable online photo editor Picnik, for example, knows this. In fact, the day is fast approaching when it will no longer be particularly useful to draw a distinction between online and offline software, between the browser and the desktop. The future’s coming, just as surely as I keep getting older.
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The future is definitely coming, but I’m with you… I like my apps on my machine, not in the ‘cloud.’
I wasn’t quite sure why, but I think you may have made it glaringly obvious – the online experience just isn’t as seamless and sexy and a well-designed app.
It’s that efficiency and integration that makes the app essentially disappear and my time spent on the computer more enjoyable. The last thing I want to do when I’m inspired to write or work is track down a bum wireless connection or bizarre network transfer error.
Indeed, most desktop apps are superior their web counterparts. But sometimes having these things online is a welcome convenience — even if functionality, and aesthetics are sacrificed.
But I’m curious to see how web apps will develop over the next little while. And I think the line between web and desktop apps has and will continue to blur.
A.viary.com is good example of an amazing web application. If you get a chance to try it out, don’t hesitate; they’ve got an amazing suite of applications in the works. And particularly fun is the Peacock application for patterns/filter generation.
I want a note-keeping app that I can keep in my pants, so I’ve been heavily using my iPhone for that. I’ve come to rely on it so heavily that Notes might be my most used iPhone app.
I use the beta version of CulturedCode’s Things.
I’ve had some of the same issues, and I recently discovered that wrapping Todoist in a Single Site Browser as created by Fluid solved my practical concerns completely.
Admittedly, that leaves my own prejudices regards desktop vs the web, but that’s really my problem. And one I’ll have to confront more and more as the boundaries between the two blur further.
Sorry, I should have pointed out that Todoist was merely my first foray into use of SSBs. I’ve since tried several others – the success varies according to my use-case for each app.
I have long struggled with this very issue. My methods for solving it have always been very kludgy.
However, with the new SDK for the iPhone out there I’m very hopeful that someone will come up with a brilliant killer-app that will tie together a To-Do List and Calendar (iCal in my case).
I would really like it if someone could create an app for our computers that will sync with a web version so that ideally we’ll have the app itself to use on our computers when we’re able, yet have the web to use as a sync medium when we’re not at “home”.
Surely the answer is not either/or, but both.
I (like yourself) far prefer desktop apps. For most of the same reasons you do.
But I think the cloud is a big issue. You don’t work on planes, but others do. And whilst I might not want to work, I might still want to read a ton of articles. I can do that in NNW, but not in Newsgator Online.
When I hit the tube, my iPhone becomes an iPod. It can’t do anything but play music. (I suspect that will change witht he SDK but right now it’s useless without a connection)
But why can’t you have both. A desktop app that syncs with the cloud. So a ToDo list that is a desktop app, but syncs with the cloud, so you can access it from anywhere, anytime, anyhow, but also use a desktop app if you so choose.
Twitter is the best example of this. I use Twitterific on my laptop, Twitter Mobile on my iPhone and Twitter web when on other peoples boxes. I can also use SMS and IM and what not. GoogleTalk is another good example.
The best apps now are desktop apps that sync/communicate with the cloud, and have both web (and other) counter parts.
Google Docs would be 100x better if it had a desktop app, or numbers.app/Excel synced seamlessly with it.
I think one of the best things that the iPhone SDK will do is create more of these cloud app partnerships, and that will relefect back to changes to the desktop.
I don’t think you’re alone in this frustration, and there’s a number of initiatives aimed at solving this problem:
Good Gears, Mozilla Prism and the aforementioned Adobe Air are all aimed at making web/online apps available even when you’re not connected.
In fact, google docs just released offline working with Google Gears.
Course, that doesn’t solve the problem you’re talking about, but it’s a start. It’ll be interesting to see where things head from here.
Hey, Khoi. If you’re looking for desktop/web integration for brain dumping, check out Evernote. I’ve been loving it and the native Cocoa base and web-enabled side of it all makes it very compelling for what you’re describing.
Email me if you’d like an invite.
@Adrian
I think if the iPhone eventually gets the functionality you speak of, I’d finally get one.
I do think things are headed the direction of integration, not either/or, but I can’t see myself jumping on board until it’s (a lot) more fully realized.
Maybe the designer in you, Khoi, is waiting for that integrated design to be a show-stopper. If it were, we wouldn’t be alone in making the leap, I’m sure.
Just wanted to mention in regards to Kevin’s comment that Mozilla Prism is actually not aimed at making web/online apps available even when you’re not connected, and this is a common misconception of what it’s about (and one which, frankly, Mozilla hasn’t been very good at clarifying since the project’s inception).
Rather than creating new standards separate from the open web to deal with offline content, Prism has the exact same capabilities for offline content that Firefox already has, e.g. HTML 5’s DOMStorage.
In regards to Khoi’s original post, I guess my feelings are a bit mixed; personally I think that truly innovative desktop apps like Quicksilver tend to be the exception rather than the norm, and that in a lot of ways, the Web gave us a sort of “tabula rasa” from which we were forced to really think about UI design from first principles because of the constraints we were given–the result being web apps like Gmail, which is far and away superior to any desktop-based mail client I’ve ever used.
I’m with you. I want my data to be online, so I can access it and work with it anywhere, but my favorite access point is a nice desktop app. I’d like to see more desktop apps that store data in the cloud and also offer web/mobile interfaces as complementary features so I can get to my stuff when I’m away from my desktop/laptop. Down the road I’m looking forward to desktops app that use the cloud as the primary store and the local data just as a backup.
The ideal is both. I wish news apps would sync properly with Google Reader. I want OmniOutliner posting and editing in both domains, etc…
I’m using and loving a quick little app called shifD that your colleague Nick Bilton developed in the NYT R&D shop. It’s a web/AIR/smartphone thingy that shares simple text notes between all of your devices. The notes look a lot like PostIts and come in three flavors: note, link, place. My favorite feature is that you can text messages right into ShifD. http://shifd.com/
I can’t wait for someone to make an amazing web-based email client. You’ve discussed the ups and downs of a few of them here, Khoi, and I think we’re all waiting for that final breakthrough. Database-driven apps like email clients and spreadsheets belong on the web as far as I’m concerned.
I’ll say that one very successful tool in the on/off line model is iTunes. Its ability to grab my podcasts when it’s connected to the web keep me stocked with a fresh listen even when I’m on the subway.
I’ve recently started using google docs collaboratively and it’s pretty cool. Sure it is crippled compared to many desktop apps, but the number of functions I use is so limited anyway docs is a refreshing break from my desktop bloatware.
The shared thing is where it’s at though. It’s a very niche use for sure, but when you want it shared docs are much easier than throwing files around in email.
In general though I agree a well written desktop app is still the most desirable.
Incidentally, if you’d like to retain your Quicksilver habits and use web apps, Fluid is a nice bridge. I use it to launch Basecamp, Campfire, Flickr, GMail, etc, almost as though they were native Cocoa apps…
Raafi – There is a great webmail client in development called Roundcube. It’s really excellent.
Reading back over this thread, it’s just occurred to me that IMAP email offers the best of both worlds for email. It’s not that well known for some reason, but it’s absolutely fantastic.
For those that don’t know about it, IMAP email stores all your mail on a server. Things like folders etc… are all stored natively there. I for example, can access my IMAP email, via Thunderbird on my PC, Mail.app on my Macbook, via the mail client in my iPod touch, and via my hosting companies webmail on the rare occasion I’m on a different computer. It’s absolutely fantastic. I wouldn’t say it doesn’t have a few minor drawbacks, but on the whole it’s absolutely amazing. I wouldn’t check my email any other way!
That’s funny, I was going to mention IMAP as well. I use it all the time and it is a great example of being able to ’email when not connected’.
More on the IMAP – when I was desktop-trapped, I would catch my email at home and work and would have to be careful to not delete from the server before I caught it at the other location. Not to mention sent messages were a nightmare to organize – I would have to ‘cc’ myself just to make sure that I have a record on both machines. Switching to IMAP changed all of that. It all syncs.
That’s funny, I was going to mention IMAP as well. I use it all the time and it is a great example of being able to ’email when not connected’.
More on the IMAP – when I was desktop-trapped, I would catch my email at home and work and would have to be careful to not delete from the server before I caught it at the other location. Not to mention sent messages were a nightmare to organize – I would have to ‘cc’ myself just to make sure that I have a record on both machines. Switching to IMAP changed all of that. It all syncs.
Have you tried stikkit? It’s a little web app that keeps up with your ‘stickies’ (does anyone remember those?) and contextualize it for you in calendar, todo, contacts, bookmarks, etc. and stores it away on the web. Handy if you are the kind of person who keeps hundred textedit/stickie notes on the desktop in the effort to remember things… The latency of connecting up to the server is the only thing that holds me back from totally depending on this, but it’s a promising concept…
Have you tried stikkit? It’s a little web app that keeps up with your “stickies” (does anyone remember those?) and contextualize it for you in calendar, todo, contacts, bookmarks, etc. and stores it away on the web. Handy if you are the kind of person who keeps hundred textedit/stickie notes on the desktop in the effort to remember things… The latency of connecting up to the server is the only thing that holds me back from totally depending on this, but it’s a promising concept…