A World Without Desktop Apps?

What value do desktop applications bring to the world?

I find myself sitting here and taking stock of the desktop apps I need, and the ones I really don't.

I like Scrivener and that brings value to my work and what I do. Photoshop is another. I am a creative professional, and there are some applications I prefer to work with and that make my life easier with what I do. Are there tablet and mobile replacements for these programs? Yes, there are. They are not as a capable, and they would make me change the way I do things, but I could survive as a creative professional without them.

For the general public, the answer to this question is much easier. You could survive without desktop applications altogether in today's world. There are mobile apps that create MS-Word files and Excel-style spreadsheets, and some that do so very well. There are image-editing programs that could put together a good-looking image or edit a photo.

And Scrivener and Photoshop have versions out or coming out for mobile.

Games are another huge desktop application, multi-gigabyte creations that reside on my hard drive should I find the time to spend with them. They are, really, one of the last reasons I maintain a desktop or Windows laptop.

Some of the most pointless desktop apps out there are primarily used to support other desktop apps, or somehow do something the basic OS should be doing for you without a major hassle. They exist just to perpetuate the desktop world, and they have no use or real function outside the desktop model. I don't need ZIP archive programs, FTP programs, file managers, or anything else of the sort on a tablet - I really shouldn't - but I admit they are once and a while nice to have things. On a tablet, I don't see the need, really, and there is always a desktop around for these types of files and functions.

Content. The future world should focus on content. The OS should be focused on a small space for running itself, and the rest should be content space. The OS should organize things and take into account whatever storage you hook up to it. Everything should optionally upload to the cloud, and things I buy from the same company should be stored up there for free.

I like devices that handle all the messy stuff for me. What app should open my books and movies? I don't care, they should just open. I expect a choice in some cases, and with other devices, I don't, but it is nice to have an option to set it.

As a creative professional, I cannot escape my desktop apps just yet. I feel that day is getting close though. In some ways, I will miss the old world, but in others, I won't.

Google has come a long way to replacing a lot of desktop apps with their online office suite. The minute Google makes a Photoshop replacement I will be one step closer to freedom. Yes, owning desktop apps is a huge benefit, but it is also comes at a huge cost. Not having to own install disks that are tied to a particular version, not having a hard drive and machine to install them on (which they get tied to), and not having to worry about a physical machine tied to one location is a huge benefit.

Things are changing again. While I like having the freedom of choosing how and where my data is stored, I also greatly appreciate the software as service model. This is a place where Amazon's model of how things are done falls way behind Google's. I love Amazon's content ecosystem, but I equally love Google's work ecosystem.

But...content. Our documents, images, and creations are the content we produce. To have an ecosystem that elevates our content on the same level as what we buy and consume is what I would love. To be able to click into an book cover I am working on as easily I can a movie on Amazon is my dream for how things should work. To be able to group things together in multiple ways, my stuff, their stuff, Noir, film, books, sad things, happy things, and be able to find them all, mine or theirs, is how I want things to work.