

The New Distribution of the 3-Tiered Architecture Changes Everything - lmacvittie
http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2010/07/08/new-three-tiered-architecture-changes-everything.aspx

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BerislavLopac
Orly? [http://berislav.lopac.net/post/615858128/the-future-of-
web-b...](http://berislav.lopac.net/post/615858128/the-future-of-web-browser)
:)

~~~
bradleyland
Raise: [http://www.bradlanders.com/2010/07/08/the-browser-isnt-
going...](http://www.bradlanders.com/2010/07/08/the-browser-isnt-going-
anywhere/)

Post content here for convenience. See link above for hyperlinks.

Berislav Lopac thinks that the browser is going away, and native applications
connected to web-server backends are the future. I feel the opposite. I think
native applications are headed the way of the cli. The browser is the great
equalizer. Think about it like this: what barriers prevent you changing
operating systems today? What barriers prevented you from changing operating
systems 10 years ago? Our daily computing lives are dominated more and more by
web-based applications. We can use these applications anywhere. It’s one of
the primary reasons mobile and tablet devices have finally gained traction.

Not too long ago, our mobility between operating systems didn’t matter much.
No one really cared if they could easily switch from Windows to Linux, because
switching didn’t achieve a specific goal that they were interested in. That
is, the tasks they could accomplish were too similar. The introduction of
mobile and tablet devices has created a new incentive for operating system
mobility. Users want to be untied from their desks, and they want to bring
their experience with them.

The browser is already an application platform. It is its own execution
environment. Ironically, Microsoft’s early vision of the web browser was that
it would be a platform to which native-like applications could be pushed over
the wire. ActiveX and proprietary browser features were an attempt to leverage
existing developer toolsets in a browser environment. This failed (for a large
number of reasons), but the persistence of IE6 in corporate environments is a
testament to just how close they were to succeeding. As browser standards
advance, we’ll see a surge in the development of fully in-browser frameworks
that use design patterns like MVC. I don’t mean V and C in the browser and
model on the server. I mean M, V, and C within a browser, where the model
reaches out (sometimes) to a server for data-sync or specific execution.
Apple’s guidelines for iPhone web apps are a great example. Their entire
framework is built atop an open-source browser, which is seeing widespread
adoption in the mobile and tablet space.

The balance between client and server based processing runs like the tides.
Not every application will become a web application, but the number and broad
importance of native applications will diminish. Web standards will continue
to advance, supporting more native-like applications in the web browser.
Projects like Fluid will allow users and developers to package browser-based
apps in launchable containers on the desktop, while mobile devices will
continue with the existing trend of abstracting away the difference between
mobile and native apps (see iOS and Android handling of web app shortcuts on
homescreens). Browser application frameworks like Sproutcore will put new
tools in the hands of developers that advance the way we think and build “web
apps”.

The future of the web browser is bright.

