Ubuntu's and Firefox's mobile OS'es are coming soon, and Google's Chrome OS is on the rise (the Chromebook was Amazon's #1 selling laptop). It seems like we should start taking "web apps", or whatever you want to call them, more seriously.<p>BUT, there are undeniably some serious limitations. I think it's time we start openly discussing these problems, and how they can be addressed.
Here are some of the biggest challenges HTML5 faces:<p>- Security e.g. users shouldn't trust a client based HTML5 with any serious data collection.<p>- Local Data - Storage is limited & it can be manipulated<p>- Syncing offline apps - Determining which is the latest version etc<p>- If the browser vendors won't implement something, it won't get implemented. This has also lead to<p>- Format Incompatibilities e.g. try audio/video tags across the major browsers
I'm no expert (yet?) but my understanding is that unless you are in a web-app (in the OS sense, ie: not in a browser strictly speaking) you loose access to features like real sockets and such. WebRTC looks awesome but the fact that we still can't built a true P2P system in HTML5 is a big failure from my point of view...
Still, I think this is the way to go for now, not strictly of course... :)
"Real sockets" you mean you don't count web sockets as real sockets? I think it will get there, eventually, just needs more time. Browsers have evolved a lot over the years, but it all comes down to the fact that the organizations in charge of creating the standards (W3C) move a little too slow.
Biggest limitations of HTML5:<p>- security causes a lot of limits for users and developers<p>- unhealthy competition between browser vendors, example: WebGL@InternetExplorer<p>- its limited to 3 languages: HTML, CSS, JS (and its derivatives)