Web applications and the Desktop

An open source perspective

Owen Taylor

Christopher Aillon

otaylor@redhat.com

W3C workshop for Web Applications

San Jose, CA

June 2004

Background

Open source desktop

Linux, *BSD, Solaris

GNOME, KDE, ...

Very diverse environment

Multiple toolkits: GTK+, Qt, Java, XUL, OpenOffice, ...

Multiple looks

Webapps and the Desktop

Developer convergence

Common technologies

Is the “desktop app” dead?

User convergence

Seamless integration

Match look + feel

Thin standardization

Standardize infrastructure, not entire toolkits

Goal: download application + toolkit from web

Toolkit development should be freewheeling

Open source

Commercial

Don't pull in huge stack of standards

Implementation barrier

Confusing for developers

Different models

UI

Content

Application

Toolkit

Content

UI Structure

Appearance

Conventional

“XForms”

Different models

UI

Content

Application

Toolkit

Content

UI Structure

Appearance

Conventional

“XForms”

Anything goes?

Different models

UI

Content

Application

Toolkit

Content

UI Structure

Appearance

Conventional

“XForms”

Theming

Not Content/UI separation but Structure/Look separation

Point of interaction between desktop toolkit + webapps?

GTK+

GTK+ Themes

Windows

XUL

Qt

Aqua

Theming (2)

Can we standardize what a theme looks like?

Webapps

Magic theme box

Windows

Open source desktop

Aqua

GTK+

Qt

?

?

2003-05-10T18:37:58