Is desktop software dead?

> Web advantage 4: Distributed architecture > If you are writing web apps, you get a distributed architecture for free. No need to do socket programming.

I wouldn't call it free, but it can shift the difficulties.

Also, as long as local disk access is noticeably faster than what your servers can deliver data-"intensive" applications will have a place on the desktop, especially if the data would have to be uploaded first. Those that people might want to use on the road will take even longer.

On the other hand, I'm often surprised how bloaty and slow many desktop apps feel. Stuff that runs without HTTP calls in the browser (or over a fast connection) often is just as fast.

Funnily enough, I think some of the slowness comes from developers trying to be nice and resource-efficient, whereas as user I would want a "YOU are the main application now, use as much as you need to work as fast as possible"-button sometimes.