" Bill Gates is catching up to the little guys... and for the first time emphasized the web browser as the central application of computing." –John Gartner, Wired.com Wednesday, July 25, 2001 As I hinted in the previous issue of my News2Me newsletter, web applications are poised to fulfill the "Write Once, Run Anywhere" promise once made by Sun Microsystems in promotions for their now-splintering, unstable anywhere Java programming language. But what is a "web application" and how is it distinguished from some other type of application? With apologies in advance to my comp-sci major friends, I'm going to liberally define an "application" as "code that performs a task" and, therefore, the terms "program," "script," "application" and "software" are used synonomously. " Microsoft is competing against Sun Microsystems, Oracle, IBM and others in the race to offer businesses the software and tools they need to build web-based software and services..." –Wylie Wong, ZDNet News A web application, then, is software that is installed on a webserver rather than a local desktop system. Some web applications can be set to run automatically without the need to be invoked by a "client" but most web apps such as BigSender or AdminPro are client/server programs that reside on a server and are invoked from a remote client (another computer in a different place) such as your local desktop system through your web browser. There is coming a mass migration of software from the local system to the webserver and it is motivated by many not-so-small advantages, any one of which would make a compelling case for desirability of the web-based application. They include: universal access by anyone with an internet connection applications perform identically without regard to the user's local platform or operating system - Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP, MacOS Classic/X, Unix, Linux, HP/UX, OS2, etc. - they're all good! no need to eliminate any populations of users because their operating systems are considered "minor" or the cost to port to them has a reduced ROI time to market and development, maintenance and support costs are unilaterally reduced as hundreds of development hurdles are virtually eliminated, such as operating system version compatibility, required components, libraries and drivers are no longer issues minimum hardware requirements such as RAM and which installed permutation of the Celery Teflon XP-22 chip are no longer relevant conflicts with other locally-installed software and peripherals also relegated to nonexistant collaborative or multiuser computing environment is inherent " Oracle has recently released its second generation web-centric database application 9i to further demonstrate the recognition by and commitment of the world's largest players to the web application concept." –Craig Richards, Craig Richards Design So the advantages of the web-based application seem clear - does that mean we should expect to see Photoshop running inside our web browser? No. Not any time soon, anyway. Like in the early days of the desktop computer, the first apps we saw were rudamentary business applications such as a smattering of form-parsing scripts, online product catalogs, shopping cart & payment-processing programs, etc. The past couple years have seen a veritable boom in sprawling sets of intertwined web applications custom engineered to run entire enterprises with as little human intervention as possible – except, quite naturally, from the team of outside contractors who maintain those systems. More recently, some software designers are taking the hard-won lessons of those enormous custom projects (and their serious need for alternate revenue streams as lucrative custom programming projects have all but dried up) and are creating a new breed of web applications and utilities that, right off the shelf, can compete with and, in some cases, outperform those big custom systems. A few web-app titles are already available through popular software retailers and the growth trend seems inevitable as demand increases along with the variety of offerings. As the sales volumes continue to increase, the established channels including retailers, distributors, publishers and engineering teams will begin taking notice and could begin to port their existing desktop titles to the web. Have an opinion, question, view or contrary position on this topic? I'd love to hear from you at news2me@craigrichards.com. Space permitting, particularly interesting replies may be printed in the next issue of News2Me. Craig Richards Design is an online design and development firm in central Oregon headed by Craig Richards. For more than 28 years, Craig has juggled two careers, one as an accomplished television and film actor, and the other in marketing and advertising design. In 1994, he began designing and programming custom websites for his clients at ad agencies and also currently runs the web's most popular family history- and reunion-related website FamilyReunion.com. Over the years, Mr. Richards has developed several web applications and released them publicly as freeware, shareware and as commercial applications. Titles include BigSender, Envirolyzer and award-winning AdminPro with more than 120,000 users worldwide. Craig Richards Design was recently named an iForce Partner by Sun Microsystems for the creation of essential tools compatible with the Unix platform. powered by name email add   modify   remove   News2Me Archive BigSender 3.80 Availability Announced In addition to other improvements and enhancements, BigSender now includes the long-awaited user authentication feature for connecting to your mailserver. News2Me 05/20/2006 In this issue: we discuss some hosting firms' anti-spam policies, our shiny new dedicated webserver, our discussion forum is temporarily disabled and improved transaction security at CraigRichards.com with high-grade 256-bit SSL encryption Craig Richards Design Plans BigSender Update to 3.70 in Early January This BigSender release further enhances the Message Composer interface with a realtime WYSIWYG HTML Editor, a plain-text wordwrap feature, an initial caps format for names and other handy improvements. BigSender Now Speaks Italian In addition to other improvements, fixes and enhancements, BigSender now includes an Italian BigSender Language File plug-in. News2Me In this issue, we announce our website's new search feature, information on my recent movie role and the latest enhancements to BigSender. News2Me: Imagine Contact Management Made Simpler What should you look for in a contact management solution? Power. Affordability. Flexibility. Simplicity. BigSender 3.670 Released: Breakthrough Features Innovative new features make BigSender 3 more powerful than ever! BigSender Technical Bulletin: Annotations BigSender 3.661 Gets Convenient New Features BigSender Reviewed by The Office Letter After an independent comprehensive evaluation of BigSender, The Office Letter concludes that, "for the money, it's a steal!" BigSender Now Speaks German BigSender Broadcasts: Get the Speed You Need How to optimize BigSender and your server environment for the fastest send rates possible. BigSender 3.6: Continuing the Revolution After more than six months in development, now you can match to whole records or only specific fields for the most granular narrowcasting! BigSender 3x: Now Even More Power and Flexibility Announcing the newest batch of features in our popular web application designed to make it simple to manage your contact lists and to easily publish your announcements, e-zines, press releases and other online publications Monday 10/21/2002 News2Me In this issue: Pursuing Passions and Perfection News2Me In this issue, we announce our new alliance with Sun Microsystems, our smooth move, and BigSender gets even more new features! BigSender 3 Released: More List-Management Features Built In The most complete online list-management and email/web publishing system available gets a one-click automated bounce manager and other built-in conveniences! News2Me: How To Publish Without Spamming BigSender is a powerful yet easy-to-use publishing system ñ but like any tool, it can be used incorrectly. Follow these guidelines to get optimal results with BigSender... E-News Gallery Goes Live Where publishers of electronic newsletters & e-zines can showcase their publications. AdminPro Is Updated No longer requires Perl to execute! Then The Rope Went Slack Rather than dazzled and empowererd, has all this techno-speak ever left you feeling dazed and confused? Marketing Secrets Revealed: When Customer Loyalty Isn't Master Minds: Becoming a Software Guru Are you an entry-level veteran or an inquisitive innovator? What Is A Web App? Bill Gates emphasizes the web browser as the "central application of computing." BigSender Backgrounder Microsoft Discontinues ListBot Out: free services. In: fee services. Official Premiere: News2Me What's Happened to AdminFTP and TestMy.CGI? AdminPro 2.5: More Power, More Control Debug CGI & Manage Files from a Web Browser?

Document last modified: May 10, 2006
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