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Comment by Charuru | Hacker News Reader

I get flash, but what's wrong with AIR?

AIR apps don't feel right. In the way that, for many, the subliminal feeling is what differentiates good iOS apps from everything else, AIR apps feel weird. All of them.

Call me crazy. But the fact is, there's another layer between the program's code and the OS. That layer is going to introduce some of its own character into the app, when compared to native apps for the current platform. I think that AIR's particular "character" is most unwelcome.

AIR apps don't feel right. In the way that, for many, the subliminal feeling is what differentiates good iOS apps from everything else, AIR apps feel weird. All of them

So do feel the same about every web app? Because Air is basically just webkit with some prepackaged APIs.

Almost. Web apps and native apps are very different beasts, and AIR makes a noble attempt to bridge the gap. The difference is that users expect web apps to act like web apps; a little bit of latency between input and visual feedback has always been the status quo (and it's getting much better). Native apps are supposed to react instantaneously, and behave consistently, and respect certain OS-wide UI conventions, accessibility features, and so forth. If the app stutters when being resized, or if there are lags in the interaction, semi-savvy users will assume that the app is poorly coded while the non-technical will be less satisfied without the ability to understand or express why.

I get what you're saying - but I have doubts about whether non-technical users care enough about those differences, glaring though they may be.

On the other hand, I guess non-technical users don't even have a concept of 'web apps'. They're just web sites which provide some useful service.

You might toss this off as the "buzz" factor, but a possible indicator of layman-users being affected by these subtle frustrations is the surging number of average users switching to the Mac.

And besides, everyone can see lag. My dad uses that term correctly, and he can't even tell the difference between "email" and "outlook".

The difference being that web apps are supposed to be foreign. AIR is kind of like a weird stepfather who tries too hard to become a part of your life like your real father (native apps), despite the fact that he can never take his place. Web apps are like that cousin that, despite having little in common, you always have a good time whenever you visit them.

It's made by Adobe and is associated with Flash, therefore it must be disliked.

In all seriousness, if you take out the Flash integration in Air (which I presume they would have to to make it work on iOS devices) then Air is basically like PhoneGap with a nice set of javascript APIs.

Air wraps flash which is why the grooveshark client takes 30 of my cpu (or used to do).

But the main problem is that the apps will never be well integrated into the host system. This doesn't matter for games but it does matter for almost any other app.

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