Originally published on Aug 22nd, 2009:

I see people, well known people no less, claiming such ridiculous things on the internet, that I sometimes despair for humanity. It is a general rule that any wide sweeping claim that generalises things is very likely ridiculous. (yes I'm aware of the irony in this sentence. But this generalising wide-sweeping claim is an exception :)).

Google releases Chrome. A very good browser. Fast, light, efficient. But still a browser. And what do people claim? That it is the first step by Google to compete with Microsoft in the Operating System domain. That it is going very soon to replace all desktop applications! All applications will be in the 'cloud'! From the techchrunch article on Google Chrome's release:

Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows…Expect to see millions of web devices, even desktop web devices, in the coming years that completely strip out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system the user needs.

That's just over-hyped sensationalistic journalism.

"But... ", you say, "didn't Google release an operating system recently? Won't that operating system, along with chrome make the previous claim reasonable?"

Yes. But there is one important word that makes all the difference. 'Netbooks'. For netbooks, it makes sense to have the memory and processing power in the 'cloud' and use all applications in the browser. But that doesn't mean it will be done on normal desktop systems.

In spite of what some more people say, desktop applications are here to stay. Yes, online applications are becoming popular. But only for certain things where it solves the problem better than desktop applications. Or, to put it in another way, problems that thus far had been inelegantly solved using desktop applications, are now being migrated to online applications, where it belongs. That doesn't at all mean all desktop applications will eventually run only in the 'cloud'.

I have always been a fan of desktop applications even for things for which online applications have become extremely popular. I still use my trusty old FeedDemon to check my RSS feeds. And it synchronises with Google Reader, so that I can still check my feeds on computers without FeedDemon. I use Mozilla Thunderbird to keep a copy of my mails on my computer. Just in case, you know, Gmail becomes unavailable or something. Online applications are wont to become inaccessible, go down, or just shutdown out of the blue, and there is nothing that can replace the security and safety of having your files on your own computer. Though better than that would be to have it in both places -- in the 'cloud' and on your computer.

Take, for example, Google Docs. For collaborative editing, for editing documents as a team, it is brilliant. But how many of you used Google Docs to write your thesis, or your business reports? Or to make that very important presentation? I thought so.

You might say the technology is not well developed at the moment, and it's only a matter of time blah blah blah. Nope. The fact is, for certain things online applications makes sense. For certain things it doesn't. It definitely isn't, and will never be a good solutions to each and every application requirement. That is like saying there is or will be a medicine that cures all diseases. Both of which are impossible because of the nature of the real world.

tl;dr - claiming that all applications will eventually migrate (or already have migrated) to the 'cloud' is over-hyping. Both online and desktop application have their uses.