I used to think the solution to the web’s gotchas was a framework to conform the web to a native app mentality. I built and deployed web apps with these stacks. I would never do it again. These frameworks build abstractions on top of abstractions. In every non-trivial app I worked on, the top abstractions leak, and you still have to hack HTML and CSS.
Web technology is great for many things. Replicating a native app experience is not one of them.
Why would I want a native app when Web apps are so much more awesome? After using Google Docs with multiple users I can't go back to Word (which is only available on systems for which I have license), Google Spreadsheets with multiple users (which again would also need a license).
There are certain apps like Photoshop, After Effects and Lightroom that still need native. But most of the rest, not so much. I still use a native code editor but I can see that disappearing soon.
I suppose one problem in discussing this is the image of 'native' app each of us has in our heads. Is it 'iTunes'? No longer need that. Google Play or Amazon Cloud music let met access all my music everywhere. Is it Office? For some users they probably still need it but most of them will have a better experience with something online.
Is it iOS apps? Which ones? Games? There's a few high-end iOS games. Most of the rest are available as web apps though or certainly reasonable clones. Is it all the native web substitutes like the G+ or Facebook app, the Twitter or Forsquare app. The Yelp, Amazon or IMDB app? All of those are a waste of bits. Frustrating because in their quest to simplify they always leave out important features. Waste because their mobile websites provide the same features.
The only thing hobbling those apps are a few more browser features and ability to put them in the app stores even if they happen to just be bookmarks.
> Why would I want a native app when Web apps are so much
> more awesome?
Because web apps are not awesome. Multiple users? Ok, that's a feature, not something very web specific.
Google docs always seem very very brittle to me.
Windows 8 also provides a consistent set of APIs across all languages supported: JScript, C#, C++ and VB.NET. There's nothing you can do in C# that you can't do in JScript on Windows 8, with the possible exception of DirectX.
Web technology is great for many things. Replicating a native app experience is not one of them.
http://sandofsky.com/blog/shell-apps.html