[buug] $*#! JavaScript and the new playing field for Free Software

[Nick Jennings]

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 6:15 PM, Claude Rubinson <cjr at grundrisse.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 03:25:38PM +0200, Nick Jennings wrote:
>> The paradigm is simple. Keep all web-app logic on the client-size (js,
>> css, html), decouple the vendor lock-in by providing a generic library
>> to facility remote-storage (remoteStorage.js) which could just as
>> easily be running on localhost, or on your own server somewhere "in
>> the cloud". The app could be distributed straight from the github
>> repository, or via various open-app channels of your choosing.
>
> Aside from the user being in control of where their data is stored,
> what's the difference between this and the idea of the web browser as
> the universal frontend (a concept that I think sounds better than it
> works in practice)?

Well, decoupling the storage from the vendor is a very significant
aspect that changes things quite a bit. In addition, if you have all
your app-logic in JavaScript/HTML/CSS client-side, and your storage at
a vendor of your choosing (your server, a friends server, a
professional storage provider), you nullify the traditional "ASP"
paradigm.

Regardless of wether the browser is or is not going to be the
universal front-end isn't really something we can predict, however
there are a tons of cases where web-apps make a lot of sense. So
therefore it makes sense to be conscious of the ways in which
open-source software can continue to thrive in those environments.

-Nick