I’m convinced smart clients will rule the world again one day, and we will all look back at ‘web application’ development as being the gigantic kludge that tied over application development until everything underneath us became virtualized.
A few weeks ago I pitched a web service / smart client design to a handful of people at a customer site. The people who will use the software loved the idea, but the people who make the final decision do not – they seem to think every solution involves server generated PDF files. PDFs are to usability as lead weights are to mobility.
I don’t remember the early 90’s being so bad as to scare everyone off of thick clients forever, but it does seem like an uphill climb at times.
I’m persistent though….