Jun 6, 2025
There are multiple examples of applications where occasionally connected smart clients are required which download needed data in local.
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There are multiple examples of applications where occasionally connected smart clients are required which download needed data in local.
The case for native, offline capable apps
Exhibit #1 - Ever had the experience of trying to watch a movie or some tv show and it's no longe available on your streaming platform?
Exhibit #2 - How about that web app that went out of business and you lost all access and functionality. e.g. Google Reader just to point an innocent and harmless example?
Exhibit #3 - Are you ok when you try to access some service it because of reasons, it’s down?
I'm sure you either had one, two or all of these experiences happening to you.
This is just the current reality of computing in general, it's either streaming and subscription based, or the common Software as a Service modality. Either way, you have the freedom of choice, the freedom of using whatever device you want, but also the complete lack of control over what happens if for some reason, your provider ceases to exist, or, if any of the conditions of the current contract change.
There is a movement about combating this sort of thing, starting only on some intellectual fringe - AKA Geeks - that actually care about such things.
Disclosure: being a 47 old computer geek, you know where I'm coming. I was born with cassete tapes FFS. But even when the internet started to appear, it was just a way to ease the distribution of software that you ran and managed, on your own computer.
Skip a couple of decades later, yada, yada, yada, SaaS is king. You rent software, you rent music, you rent movies. There's no digital owning anymore. Anything you do is just within the bounds of a monthly subscription fee and while a lot of this makes sense from a ease of use and sometimes, even economically, it hides the truth about our lost of owning anything.
Even the phone or computer we use today is limited in what it can do, just look at iPads, you can only install whatever goes through the store, as we have all been deemed as incompetent to manage what runs on our own hardware.
You might guess where this is going to now... I'm in favor of apps, apps that we can freely install and keep to use, regardless of a company's business goes down, of if the internet has been hacked again and there's a fucking DoS on your service.
The internet was designed to be resilient to attacks and still keep going, but what you do have today is that all aspects of your life are in fact tied to specific services that rely on the internet working, and the company that owns your app paying the data center bills.
Thing is, we are now in the passenger seat.
If any of your service is not like an E-mail app,(not your Gmail), and by this I mean you have an IMAP client, you have your email with you. you can use it offline, and you can even change the servers it talks to, in case you move from provider.
See the diference? It uses the internet, but it is resilient to downtime, you own the app, you can use it whenever you want, and you're not tied to a single provider.
Thoughts? I'm going to be thinking about this in 2024.
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