ReadWriteWeb

The change in emphasis for HTML5 away from just content and more toward functionality, coupled with a much deeper impact from Apple on the broader model of computing than even Apple's most adamant fans could have anticipated, has led to a changed scenario for the Web. By this time next year, barring any delays, the Web delivery model for the world's three most prevalent platforms - Windows, iOS, and Android - will be based on apps.

This changes the landscape for developers like Mozilla and Opera Software, whose value propositions to date have been based around building better browsers: If the user now bypasses the browser icon and goes directly to an app, how does a browser maker convince customers that there's value in swapping out the engines that run their apps - components which, like graphics cards, they probably never see or even care about?

Peppermint, a new Linux-based operating system with a focus on cloud computing and Web applications, is launching into a private beta this week to a limited number of participants, and will open up later next month to even more. The OS is a fork of Lubuntu and uses some of Linux Mint's configuration files, hence the name "Peppermint." Unlike desktop-focused Linux distributions, running applications on Peppermint won't require "installing countless numbers of software packages and reading wikis all Saturday afternoon," reads the product homepage. Instead, users will run Web apps in their own windows via Mozilla's Prism technology.

FluidApp is what's called a Single Site Browser and is a great way to pull key websites you use throughout the day out of your primary browser and onto your Mac dashboard as standalone applications. It's super easy for anyone to use. The service has a thriving community of users - I have 10 Fluid browsers running on my computer right now and wouldn't want to work without them. In fact, I'm writing this blog post from Movable Type inside a Fluid Browser.

In a quiet mid-December move, FluidApp developer Todd Ditchendorf put "most of the code behind Fluid" up on Github under an open source license. That's very good news - new developments are already coming fast and furious. If you haven't checked out Fluid before, now is a great time.

Yesterday on this blog Sarah Perez wondered how important is offline access for web apps? Her conclusion was that offline access is important now, but not as important as it once was. And that with the increasing ubiquity of Internet access, it is growing less important every day. I won't dispute that, but there is an important distinction to be made between offline access to web apps (as Google Gears provides) and desktop access to web apps (as Mozilla's Prism and Adobe's AIR provide). The latter is a very important step in the evolution of web apps.