Ask HN: What makes you switch from desktop to web application?

2 pointsskardan13y ago2 comments

Recently I have seen very complex "wedding excel", large spreadsheet file with many sheets dedicated to tracking tasks and information related to wedding preparation. As usual, excel file was shared via email and versioned manually ... :)

There was no special feature which required desktop version - it would be piece of cake to accomplish same task using web alternative (for example Google Docs). And a lot faster.

My question is: what makes you switch from desktop to web application?

Compared to desktop most web apps provide less features, but do not require installation, provide new features like "use everywhere", cloud storage and sometimes Ehterpad-like synchronization. However with services like DropBox cloud storage is not that big advantage any more.

So what was the killer feature which recently convinced you to abandon desktop <insert your favourite application here> and start using web app?

2 comments

Piskvorrr13y ago

Uh, nothing? I'm very happy with my desktop apps which keep on working when the umbilical cord to the Central Brain of Mankind is severed, thankyouverymuch. As you have noted, Dropbox keeps my files nicely synced even through spotty connections - but the files don't disappear when the link inevitably drops (yeah, yeah, 99.99999% uptime, complete 4G coverage, yada yada yada; pull the other one).

Quite the opposite - using various web interfaces for e-mail drove me back to Thunderbird: hey look, it can search messages without any network connection at all (le gasp!).

Of course, I'm all for using appropriate tools: e-mailing a collaborative work around is very much like trying to use a hammer as a screwdriver. But for single-user tasks, web apps are definitely worse, IMNSHO.

Disclaimer: I'm not a representative sample, nor do I play one on Youtube.

pmtarantino13y ago

In my computer, it's even faster to open a new tab and go to Google Docs and open the file, than search it in my hard disk and open it on Office.

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