After seeing what google docs is capable of it is only a matter of time before even things like photoshop will be web oriented.
Just the other day I was looking for a visio replacement, on a hunch I asked here if somebody knew of a web based version of it and I got two viable suggestions. Now, 5 years ago that would have been laughed at with 'that will never happen'. Now it is there.
Give it another 5 years and who knows. Maybe the next iteration of the gimp is going to be a service, not a local program.
I hold absolutely nothing for impossible, I've been wrong too often in the past :)
note to my fanclub: instead of downmodding try to explain why you think this is wrong.
That may all be true in the future. In fact, browsers as a rule seem to be evolving closer to operating systems with time.
For the time being, I find that when there is a web version and a nonweb version, the nonweb version is virtually always more feature rich, more robust, and more polished than the web version. That could easily change in the future.
One thing that is unlikely to change is that I will have more control over the nonweb version, including amoungst other things the ability to refuse/ignore certain upgrades and to know that my data is staying on my local machine and not being sent to third parties at all. This is normally trivial for most things, but it can be very important for mission critical items where consistency, stability, privacy, and customization are more important that being on the bleeding edge.
Of course, it is possible good solutions to even those last problems will be found, but I do not think that one is on the horizon yet.
In short, I think that there is a place for both and that for the near future more things will (and should) move onto the web. But not all of it and in particular not the most important parts.
Just the other day I was looking for a visio replacement, on a hunch I asked here if somebody knew of a web based version of it and I got two viable suggestions. Now, 5 years ago that would have been laughed at with 'that will never happen'. Now it is there.
Give it another 5 years and who knows. Maybe the next iteration of the gimp is going to be a service, not a local program.
I hold absolutely nothing for impossible, I've been wrong too often in the past :)
note to my fanclub: instead of downmodding try to explain why you think this is wrong.
and have a look at this:
http://www.picnik.com/