Ode to the Desktop

Blame Google. Actually, blame Microsoft. The idea sounded great, but the consequences? Unintended. They slow you down. They limit your skills. They force you into a world of mediocrity.

I’m talking about using applications in a browser.

Now, I don't mean any application. There are many types of applications that work well in a browser. For example, process and transactional applications like CRM, Spend Management, and Project Management work just fine in a browser.  In fact, having a browser UI eliminates the need for a client installation, which is a big part of what makes cloud applications appealing. 

Many other types of applications like monitoring, analytics, and reporting also work well in a browser. But the applications that don’t belong in a browser are authoring applications; the types of applications in which you are creating or editing content. Yet, they seem to be very popular.  

Google started it.

For decades, authoring was done in desktop applications like Word or Excel. Then Google introduced its application suite as browser apps in a frontal attack on Microsoft.  Google first launched Docs and Sheets back in 2006 after acquiring Writely and XL2Web. Google Slides was added in 2012. At the time, Microsoft was going through the rough patch of the Balmer era, being attacked on many fronts (and losing), including desktop OS, mobile OS, browser, ...and office suites. Seeing an opening and being flush with cash from its money-printing ad business and the 2004 IPO, Google succeeded where several companies failed a decade before, including Borland, WordPerfect, Lotus, and IBM.

And succeed Google did, especially after cleverly combining the browser applications with Google Drive in 2012. Google Apps, now called Google Workplace, quickly became a serious alternative to Microsoft Office which until then had a virtual monopoly on office applications. The pressure forced Microsoft to counter the way Microsoft always does – by doing the same and making it free. 

Microsoft joins the bandwagon

Microsoft introduced its Office Web Apps in 2010 and later renamed them Office Online, Office 365, and eventually Microsoft 365. The rest is history and browser-based authoring apps from Google and Microsoft are everywhere. Microsoft also introduced SkyDrive in 2007, eventually renamed to OneDrive, which is also integrated with MS365 just like Google Drive. The “free” strategy didn’t work that great against Google, which made Workspace free as well. According to Statista, Google supposedly owns 44% of the market share for office suites, while Microsoft 365 owns 30%.

Browser applications have many benefits. They require no installation and the installation with cloud drive makes working in the cloud easy. Kids use them in school for their projects and, consequently, Gen Z seems to prefer them over desktop apps. Google introduced real-time co-editing in 2006, which enabled new ways of team collaboration that weren’t possible in Microsoft’s suite until 2015. Other benefits are enjoyed by the IT departments such as low cost of administration, high scalability, and solid security.

However, browser applications have significant drawbacks. 

For one, they require a browser to operate. Browsers are designed for viewing web pages, not to run authoring applications. This has some repercussions. For one, a browser is designed to browse the Internet. But when there is no Internet, there are no applications to work with. Losing power is not that uncommon even in Silicon Valley and while your laptop might have plenty of battery charge left, you have no apps to work with.

Another issue is related to opening multiple documents at a time. As document sharing via a link is very easy in a browser, every time you receive a link, you click on it and leave it open to get back to it later. Before you know it, you have a hundred tabs open, each consuming 300 MB of memory. Your laptop gets slower and slower and eventually your browser might crash.

Most importantly, the browser apps only come with a subset of functionality compared to the desktop apps. Don’t believe for a second that browser-based Word or Photoshop are the same as their desktop counterparts. In MS365 alone, you will find many limitations in formatting, shortcuts, performance, data sizes, data modeling (Excel), embeddable objects, customizations, add-ons, macros, and more. 

Similarly, Adobe’s Photoshop for the Web is a highly simplified version of the desktop application. That's why many applications like Adobe Premiere Pro or Autodesk’s AutoCAD don’t even exist as a web version. These applications are built for complex authoring workloads that the users are unlikely to ever perform in their browser. 

The pros use desktop applications

That’s at the heart of the matter. Browser authoring is good enough for light workloads like writing a memo, updating an Excel table, or adjusting image contrast. But for more serious workloads that involve heavy formatting, large data sets, macros, or specialized add-ons, desktop applications are the only choice. The users get trained in using PowerPoint, Excel, Photoshop, or AutoCAD. In fact, they take great pride in how well they master these applications. There are entire industries built around making such professional users more proficient.

You might argue that 80% of all workloads are quite simple and the web applications are perfectly good for that. But I disagree. You don’t become a faster runner by running slow. Professionals go through training to learn their tools of trade. They become proficient in using shortcuts. They seek ways to learn better ways of using the apps. They explore the latest innovations and add-ons available for their applications. They challenge each other to push the limits of their tools. Pros want to run faster. 

And that’s only possible when using desktop applications.