Microsoft eyes making desktop apps free

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An even better idea would be...

...to purchase Office Automation software that does NOT need an Internet connection WHATSOEVER, except for updates and patches.

Whoops...I forgot...that's what I have now with the EXISTING array of M$-Office products!

What I object to is the idea that 'fat-client' apps seem to be at some risk - that a day may come when I have no choice but to install the free or paid version of a thin-client office automation app - and I'm not happy about that prospect.

This whole 'thin client' thing seems to have gotten WAY out-of-hand, sacrificing the desires and needs of the average home-PC user on the altar of distributed corporate application deployment.

As a home PC user, I don't NEED - and I don't WANT - to be connected to the Internet simply to compose documents and spreadsheets and presentations or to run standalone or workgroup-caliber databases. I want to install the app and forget about connectivity issues - one more 'moving part' that overcomplicates the mix, and I don't want to have to rely upon the good working order of somebody's server farm just to sit down and write a letter to Auntie Em, eh?

The cost of the iron has gone down so far that the added muscle required to run today's Fat Client apps is a non-issue, and, once installed, I want my apps to be as close to self-contained and disconnected from the world - and prying eyes - as is practicable.

When I connect to the Internet, I want the choice, the timing, and the manner in which I connect to be something that I control, insofar as that can be achieved and sustained. It may be an interconnected world nowadays but I want the choice of when-and-where-and-how to remain with ME, not forced upon me by next-gen thin-client apps that need a server farm in order to function.

Thin-client office automation apps may (or may not) be an unstoppable future trend, but I, for one, am hoping that the concept falls on its face, miserably, and that the idea becomes an amusing historical footnote in the industry.

Yes - I know - old-fashioned and half-informed thinking, right? Time will give us that answer.

Posted by: jamuller3   Posted on: 11/14/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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