f3l wrote:

> Is the browser the new os / operative system ?

Some factors that haven't been mentioned yet in this thread:

1. Use of a local HTTP server as a deployment method for *local* apps.
Some apps on Linux/UNIX are starting to move in this direction.

For example, the CUPS printing management software has a web-based
interface -- that is, not a bunch of scripts running through a web server,
but the web server is built right into the print management software.
Another example is Deluge, a bittorrent client, which although GTK based,
also includes a web interface.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years we started to see
traditional desktop apps deployed as a tiny webserver that you would
download, run on localhost on some weird port number, and then use via a
web browser.

2. An even more integrated version of #1 with a lightweight web server and
database built straight into the browser. A web app can be install itself
(HTML, images, javascript) locally into the browser's built-in web server
and store data in a built-in database. Google Gears is already providing
this sort of functionality as a Firefox extension; work is being done on a
Safari version; Opera has indicated that it will probably include a Gears-
compatible API in Opera 10; Adobe has plan on implementing the API in a
future version of Apollo.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
[Geek of HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python/Apache/Linux]
[OS: Linux 2.6.17.14-mm-desktop-9mdvsmp, up 37 days, 18:24.]
[Now Playing: Tiny - They Say Its Weird]

Bottled Water
http://tobyinkster.co.uk/blog/2008/02/18/bottled-water/