Break Free of the Browser
"Break free of the browser" is a telling phrase in the age of Web 2.0. Joyent's Slingshot, essentially a VM for Rails apps, uses that phrase. Despite the benefits of the Web for at least some kinds of applications, Joyent realized, there is a need for a desktop connection. The decades-plus barrage of hype for the Web as a platform makes this phrase seem all the more telling: The companies in the back-to-the-desktop movement aren't anti-Web, but they have seen its shortcomings clearly enough that they welcome such language. Joyent's technology lets Rails developers create apps that work the same online and off, with seamless drag and drop across the membrane. Corel uses Joyent's technology for its line of integrated web/desktop apps. Zimbra (online/offline e-mail) and ThinkFree online/offline office apps) are two more companies riding this Web-centric but desktop-empowered trend.
And then there's Dojo. "Imagine if web applications could store megabytes of data on the client side...persistently and securely." Dojo tackled that challenge, to deliver an API to provide JavaScript web apps with offline storage capability "whether this JavaScript is in a browser, a Firefox plug-in, an ActiveX control, using Windows Scripting Host, etc." Cleverly, dojo.storage automagically detects available storage options and selects the most appropriate one.
It's free, it's open source, and it consists of just two pieces: a JavaScript library bundled with your web page and a 300K cross-platform, cross-browser component to cache your web app's UI for use offline. But they now find themselves swimming in deep waters with some big fish.
