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Software The Internet

Online Replacements for Desktop Apps? 335

Posted by Cliff from the share-your-favorites dept.
Jon_Aquino asks: "I'd like to share this Google Groups thread of free online replacements for desktop apps. Some of the gems are: an online UML diagrammer, an online Paintbrush app, online Post-It notes, an incredibly realistic text-to-speech converter, and an online spreadsheet. What are other cool online desktop-app replacements?"
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Online Replacements for Desktop Apps? More

Online Replacements for Desktop Apps?

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  • Minesweeper, etc. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Carnildo ( 712617 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:27PM (#9953495) Homepage Journal
    I saw an online Minesweeper replacement somewhere. Only worked with Mozilla, though.

  • Computer Voice TTS (Score:3, Funny)

    by romper ( 47937 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:28PM (#9953500)
    This isn't specific to online apps, but rather one that was posted (computer TTS). Something I found interesting were different voice synths for different languages or accents.

    How to make the MS "Merlin" agent more annoying? Give him a French accent!

  • secure...? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Worminater ( 600129 ) <worminater@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:29PM (#9953508)
    i dont know about you guys but i dont think i would use those apps... if you dont have access to excel/mspaint, i would always rather have a flashdrive with them or variations on there rather then relying on third party web page being online to get something halfway useful done...

    • Re:secure...? (Score:4, Funny)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:39PM (#9953601)
      The next big "paradigm shift" is going to be applications that allow you keep your tools and private data on your own computer, thus avoiding smearing it all across the public sphere where anyone can take a crack at it.

      KFG

      • Well, that UML diagrammer [gskinner.com] linked in the story post exports the diagrams as XML which you save and then import later. So it looks like that paradigm is shifting right beneath your mouse. (It's really a pretty neat little flash app.)

  • Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:5, Informative)

    by maelstrom ( 638 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:30PM (#9953511) Homepage Journal
    Sheesh.

  • Raise your hands if... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:30PM (#9953513)
    you just spent 5 minutes making the online text to speech tool say dumb stuff like 'all your base are belong to us'.

  • Browser (Score:5, Funny)

    by 14erCleaner ( 745600 ) <FourteenerCleaner@yahoo.com> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:30PM (#9953514) Homepage Journal
    I want an online replacement for my web browser. Even Firefox takes too much memory on my PC.
    • I just found an online bullshit generator [slashdot.org] that I intend to use to replace PowerPoint.

      You may have to click through to the replies, that's where the greatest concentration of bullshit is generated...
    • I found a couple of these, but they take
      too much bandwidth. Where can I get a
      T3 for $9.95 a minth?
    • Funny, but on old Palms, there was a program called Proxy-web (it may still exist) where an intermediate server would download the pages you were interested in and convert the graphics to something small and 4-bit grayscale, then send it on to your device. Maybe these "high-speed" versions of AOL and NetZero do the same thing.

  • Lots of people have thought of this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by madprof ( 4723 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:30PM (#9953516)
    One of the reasons Microsoft fought so hard in the browser wars was because it was felt that the *real* platform could well become the browser, which you could then access applications via, not the underlying OS.
    Looks like they won...

  • Simpy.com for bookmarks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by otisg ( 92803 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:31PM (#9953527) Homepage Journal
    Does a browser count as a desktop app?

    If it does, then Simpy [simpy.com] is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks (really more than bookmarks, but let's keep it at that). Here is a demo [simpy.com] and some screen shots [simpy.com].
    • > Simpy is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks

      Nah ... better use this [google.com]

    • del.icio.us [del.icio.us] is a pretty cool replacement/complement to bookmarks as it allows you to share and categorize interesting links and also gives you an rss feed in return. Along with that, there's a slight soical networking aspect.
    • One of the only reasons I stick with IE is the Yahoo Companion toolbar. It allows me to bookmark pages which are stored online with Yahoo and then access them from any machine. A lot like Simpy but integrated nicely into the browser.

      If only Yahoo would make a version for Mozilla or Opera.
      • Note one cool Simpy tool that not many sites have (certainly no bookmarking sites that I know of) - Mozilla search plugin - here [simpy.com] (requires login). It's got a handy side panel, too, but that is more common. Of course, browser integration is done with bookmarlets, so pretty much all browsers should work.

  • It's Usenet, not Google Groups (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anthony ( 4077 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:32PM (#9953528) Homepage Journal
    What is the Internet coming to? It's like saying "Hotmail" is "Internet Mail" and "The WWW" is "The Internet".

  • By posting this to /. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:33PM (#9953544) Homepage
    you demonstrated the greatest flaw of online apps:
    They depend on a running server. These just died. ;-/
    • Java WebStart apps are a lucky hybrid- to the user, they are online... they get updated whenever necessary so the user knows no difference. But, if the website is down, you can still run the app and you can even have a shortcut locally. Sure they take up local HD space, but if you are running online apps merely to save a meg or two locally, I'm worried about you. HD space is like... uh, a buck a GIG now or something?

      If you don't think something like this could be very useful, try JDiskReport. [jgoodies.com]

  • The best one... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Dr. Bent ( 533421 ) <ben&int,com> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:33PM (#9953545) Homepage
    The Google Calculator [google.com]

  • SalesForce.com (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ron_ivi ( 607351 ) <sdotno@cheapcomp ... s.com minus poet> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:34PM (#9953550)
    Perhaps not an desktop app as much an Enterprise ap; but they're much nicer than other sales software that ran on desktops that I've used.

  • Nice but what's the point (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lotu ( 797031 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:34PM (#9953552)
    Those online apps are very useful. Really who is going to use paint to make a picture. Or that online spreadsheat program when you can just install the program on your hardrive and use it their where it's faster and more fully featured. Pluss if you are a secure network then you couldn't use them anyways. I just don't really see the point.

  • Basecamp project management (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:34PM (#9953553) Homepage Journal
    BaseCamp [basecamphq.com] is probably the best project manager I've seen, and it's online. I don't get it, why can't desktop apps be this cute and easy to use? Just go look at the screenshots!

    Of course, I don't have a paid up BaseCamp membership since I think it's overpriced, but there you go :-) (This is one benefit of regular desktop software)

  • If that 'spreadsheet' is a gem (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:35PM (#9953563)
    you are a very easy person to please. Its not really a replacement for anything.

  • My geek b0yfriend's n0t h0me right n0w... (Score:5, Funny)

    by xigxag ( 167441 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:36PM (#9953566)
    That text-to-speech proggy could come in handy for making up your own custom wacky answering machine messages. You never know, Slashdotters -- callers might actually believe you've got a live-in girlfriend!

  • Application Servers? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by upsidedown_duck ( 788782 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:37PM (#9953576)

    I thought the much-hyped application server revolution never happened, because people just don't want to share personal or proprietary information or need the guaranteed availablility of a locally-installed app. The only real popular web apps I can think of are the search engines of various types (web, real estate, personal ads, etc.) and, perhaps, those on-line tax services (you give them your information at a store front, too). Otherwise, the WWW is still mostly just a place to share information, mail-order stuff, and post flamebait to forums like this one.

  • The most ubiquitous of all (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:37PM (#9953580)
    There are online sex partner simulators all over the innurnet. They're not too realistic though, as the feedback device feels very much like a squeezing hand...

  • This...could be...the REVOLUTION. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Masque ( 20587 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:37PM (#9953586)
    Wait, wait, wait.

    Did I read this right?

    FREE software?

    Like, you mean, it's free for two weeks then I have to buy it? Or you mean that it's not free, but you found a place to pirate it?

    Or...no. It... it's not possible. Are you seriously coming here, to Slashdot, and telling us that there are software packages that we don't have to pay for, and can still legally use?

    Holy crap, man.

  • The Horde Projects. (Score:3, Informative)

    by ron_ivi ( 607351 ) <sdotno@cheapcomp ... s.com minus poet> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:39PM (#9953598)
    http://www.horde.org/projects.php

    These guys have great webmail(Imp) ; nice web based file managers (Gollem); a nice CVS viewer.

    From their FAQ [horde.org]

    Horde is both a piece of software and a project. The Horde Project comprises a set of Web-based productivity, messaging, and project-management applications, each of which is described below. The Horde Framework is a common code-base used by Horde applications, including libraries and a common user interface.

    The Horde Framework doesn't do anything on its own; as a user, you will always be interacting with a Horde-based application.
  • I dont have the link handy, but the Indiana state government launched such a beast earlier this year.

  • reminds me of (Score:4, Interesting)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <asv@@@ivoss...com> on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:41PM (#9953626) Homepage Journal
    "Corel Java Office" [javaworld.com]

    In the mid late 90's when everyone was going to use the netscape web browser and Sun's java to run all their applications from applets on thin-client sun terminals. Oh, and all your news would come from "Push" technology like Pointcast.

  • Is it me? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mr. Cancelled ( 572486 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:42PM (#9953627)
    I've never been one to rely too heavily on online apps.

    Something about trusting my data (confidential or not) to some unknown, faceless entity, for lack of a better term, has always kept me away from such services.

    Not that I'm a paranoid guy or anything ("even paranoid people have enemies!"), but who knows who's really seeing what your data, and who knows what they might do with that knowledge. Whether it's initially (mis)used or not, the danger is there. And if it's archived anywhere along the way, the potential for misuse is even greater, as now anyone down the road can come along and find/sell/misuse it.

    "See this killer app that everyone's talking about? That was my idea! But no sooner had I began sketching out my flow on gmodeler [gskinner.com] then 'Boom!' it was patented and being marketed everywhere. That shoulda been me...." (Not that GModel would ever do this, but it's a good example of my point).

    Not to mention the confidentiality issue... I work for a financial services company, and a few years ago, we were looking at ways to quickly re-purpose a bunch of PDF documents to HTML, and one proposed solution was a web service that offered online conversion of such documents for free. Clearly though the privacy issues, not to mention potential for misuse of the data made us choose a different avenue!

    Plus there's always the fear of relying on the online apps. If I become dependant upon it, either for my work, or for the convenience it offers, what am I to do if suddenly the site goes under, becomes a pay site, or simply changes URLs due to a provider going down.

    Not that there aren't any valuable services out there, there are! It's just that I feel safer relying on local software, and homegrown solutions. Am I alone with this perception?
    • Hey, I completely agree with you. I also like to have apps that will work when our RoadRunner line goes down (an inevitability) and we're flying blind with 20 people on dialup.

    • Re:Is it me? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by White Shadow ( 178120 )
      I agree, public online applications shouldn't be used for sensitive data. That's why webnote [aypwip.org] is open sourced under the BSD license. If you want to make private notes or have something that you're locally accountable for, you can run it on your own server and use SSL or whatever.

      Additionally, that's one of the reasons I provide an RSS feed. You can easily save a local backup of your notes.

      Tony

    • ... Unfortunately, some new concepts like Thin Clients, and Software Services are bringing us back to the bad old days of mainframe computers when a private message sent from one person to another could easily be intercepted by a corrupt official. ...

      Ouiki Glogs:Rationale for attribution-free online communities [wearcam.org] ~ [steve mann, wearcam.org]

  • http://www.pixelsight.com/ [pixelsight.com] is my favorite, it's been around for 6 or 7 years. It's an online interface to some guys NeXT graphics rendering software. Slicker than snot for making quickie graphics.

    I'm the cheapest person I know and I actually pay for this.

    (Requires JavaScript)

  • Text to Speech (Score:2, Interesting)

    by adjusting ( 32309 )
    This would be great for language learning. You could just cut and paste in a foreign language text, choose a voice appropriate to that language, and hear approximately how a native speaker would pronounce it. I wish there was a Mandarin version.

  • Webware directory (Score:5, Informative)

    by nemexi ( 786227 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:43PM (#9953641)
    A comprehensive directory of web applications can be found here [pricelesswarehome.org] (link mentioned in the usenet thread).

  • Check out XDesktop for Open office (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chuck Bucket ( 142633 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:43PM (#9953644) Homepage Journal
    I've been following this lately, it seems that the Open Office folks are working with the XDesktop movement- api: Interface XDesktop [openoffice.org]. It all makes sense, why install software that you rarely use? I'd much rather have it on a central server, think about lic costs, think about the easy of patching said software once, instead of hundreds of places...

    CBG
    • When Microsoft proposed to do this two years ago, people jumped down their throats. When the Open Source community does it, there's a general "hey cool" feeling. Am I the only person who doesn't feel comfortable putting his trust in a bunch of volunteers over a company he has paid money to for a support contract?

      As for "why install software you rarely use:" because hard drive space is cheap and nearly limitless. Net connections are expensive and limited. You can still patch everything from a central se
  • Unfortunately I have to keep a windows machine around at our warehouse just because UPS's shipping tool only runs on windows. Strange since this appears to be written in Java I do not know why they don't port a copy to Linux.

    Also USPS shipping programs such as stamps.com and endicia.com have annoying poorly design window clients for a function that would be better suited as web-based client.

    Oh well I will have to wait.

  • How about networked apps that I can use from my Treo600 screen, or some other (higher rez) networked PalmOS/browser phone?
  • Well, not really. But if the site goes down, or your net connection does, your apps might as well be blue-screened...
  • I would use some online apps like online stickies.

    But I have a dreadful fear of an app I use all the time - along with my data - vanishing forever.

    I think if I could dwonload and also host the code for an online app, that would help. Also I think it imperitive that every online app like these that holds data you care about provide a means to download you data from the site in one easy-to-read chunk, that could be re-uploaded to the service if it had a failure and lost data, or simply parsed through to pu
  • Like this place. [slashdot.org] ;-)

    Or this [mailto] instead of snail mail!

  • killer app (Score:3, Funny)

    by bcrowell ( 177657 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @06:54PM (#9953729) Homepage
    Oh my God, they totally forgot the killer app [barbie.com]!
  • That thing sounds great, but it is a tech demo, not an app. If there is a way to make it speak an arbitrary text file and send it to me as an MP3, let me know. Otherwise it is pretty useless.
  • This is what they did back in the old days. You dial in to use a professional application. Interesting how when bandwidth starts to outperform processing power we find ourselves in the same position again.
  • There is credible evidence that an "online desktop" advocate known only as "Jon_Aquino" is threatening to make the country less secure by encouraging already stupid computer users to abandon the safety and security of software that does not require an Internet connection. Remember, if you use online desktop applications then the terrorists have already won.
  • What's the big deal about trying to replace everything on the desktop with an online app? For some applications it makes sense. But everything? It's almost like people want my desktop to be nothing more than a thin client running a browser connected to beefy servers. Did Wyse dump something in the water supply?

    Couldn't I just *store* my documents online, instead of having to move all my applications there as well?
    • Couldn't I just *store* my documents online, instead of having to move all my applications there as well?

      How about storing your documents locally and just loading your applications from an online source?
      • My question is "why"? I've got a 3.0 GHz CPU in my system, so I don't understand the urgency to have it remain idle while I place all the load on someone's server.

        Call me unclear on the concept, but it seems to me that the days when the user couldn't afford processing power and memory space are long gone. Why does it seem that just as the common man gets adequate computing power, the elite comes along to take away their CPUs and RAM?

        Why?
  • Although it is an obvious answer, I love web mail clients and I have used some that are just as functional as Outlook.

    <shameless plug> hostedLABS [hostedlabs.com] is building a tools along these lines</shameless plug>

    And I have played Flash Pacman and javascript Battleship.

  • slashdot . org (Score:5, Funny)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Thursday August 12, 2004 @07:16PM (#9953896) Homepage
    I hear that the website over at http://slashdot.org is a great online replacement for actual work.

  • Online Java-based SSH Client (Score:3, Informative)

    by ocknock ( 578168 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @07:31PM (#9953994)
    Mindterm's Java-based SSH client is perfect for when you can't or don't want to install PuTTY on a public Windows machine and still need SSH access to a remote machine.

    The SSH client is widely available from various sources, particularly universities. Just Google for "mindterm ssh" [google.com] to find a location near you.
    One caveat: I've only used this using Internet Explorer (since that is always on a public Windows machine), but the SSH client is also supposed to work with Netscape.

    • Mindterm's Java-based SSH client is perfect for when you can't or don't want to install PuTTY on a public Windows machine and still need SSH access to a remote machine.

      I wish it was, but no... Thanks to the security restrictions of Java, it can be a real PITA.

      Basically, if it's on the same server you want to connect to, then you're okay with basic SSH... But in my experience, companies don't keep their SSH server on the same site as their webserver, so that's not much of an option.

      Now then, to connect

  • I believe the personality and compatibility tests at eharmony and Match.com qualify as online apps.

    Thing is eHarmony relies solely on this method to match you up and match.com relies more on pictures - guess where the ugly but cool people go? Guess where the pretty but clueless people go?

  • It appears the ol' Slash has shown why one shouldn't be dependant on web based applications. Hopefully it'll clear up soon so the rest of us can check them out.
  • AFAIK, the AT&T Natural Voices app isn't freeware. Their little demo might be free to use, but does that mean we should count all demoware as freeware?

    If anyone else has a link to some FREE (and high-quality - none of this "SAM" or Dr. Sbaitso quality stuff!) text-to-speech converters, I'll all ears. Ha. Get it? All ears... hehehe...

  • Great work guys (Score:3, Insightful)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @07:55PM (#9954162) Journal
    AT&T would like to thank slashdot for load testing their new TTS system. Which i must say held out pretty well during its 15 minute bombardment of "fuck me hard" (audrey) "last time on star trek voyager" (claire) and "essen mein sheizer. oh yah. dass ist gut!" (both of the germans). And thus, we learn the reason why we dont use online replacements for desktop apps: we all have our own computing power, a website cant handle all of us.

  • I've used the Color Schemer Online [colorschemer.com] to come up with some cool color schemes for web pages. Sometimes it doesn't seem to turn out right, but I seem to avoid coming up with ... *ahem* ... wonderful color schemes that Slashdot has (I'm looking at you IT and Games section).

  • http://actor.loquendo.com The best-sounding TTS program I ever heard, for any language I speak. Outputs mp3's up to 30 seconds in length, and even longer wav's. It's down right now... Slashdotted?
  • I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but Bloglines [bloglines.com] is one of my favorite web applications. It's an online RSS/Atom aggregator in a simple, ad-free interface.

  • The best way... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by maximilln ( 654768 ) on Thursday August 12, 2004 @10:00PM (#9955003) Homepage Journal
    ...to turn your top-of-the line PC into a 286 era performer.

    Puh-leez. I'd like to boot to BIOS so that I can load DOS so that I can run Windows so that I can use IE so that I can set up a VM so that I can sandbox an application so that I can use a buggy Java editor to write a self-worship web page?

    As an exercise in emulating those Russian dolls that keep getting smaller and smaller, sure. As a real-world computing solution? I'll know we're in hell if this ever achieves wide-spread adoption. The current deluge of web-based Java apps is already turning my hair grey with bugs, security exploits, extremely nasty functionality, and spontaneous page refreshes which cause my recent changes to be replaced with the 5 minute old information that the server has.

  • New SourceForge project (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ispeters ( 621097 ) <ispeters@alu[ ]. ... a ['mni' in gap]> on Friday August 13, 2004 @12:40AM (#9955821)

    Plug warning: I'm the project admin

    Go check out the Sydney [sourceforge.net] project. There's an example at http://sydney.sourceforge.net/sydney_example.html [sourceforge.net].

    Sydney is an all-Javascript/CSS/DOM project intended to create applications that run in your browser but look like desktop apps. It's already in use in a real project, but I'm not sure how much I can say about it, what with it being proprietary and all.... Anyway, Sydney is (to be) released under the LGPL. (The "to be" part is 'cause I'm just finishing up exams, and I haven't figured out the file release tools on SourceForge yet. Everything's in CVS, though.) It provides a fairly rich class hierarchy of widgets, including normal stuff like buttons, labels, and checkboxes, plus some more complex stuff like trees and tables. It runs in both Mozilla and IE, and it's intended to be cross-browser, so now that it's open source, it may start to work in $YOUR_FAVOURITE_NON_TTY_BROWSER. Let me know what you think.

    Ian

  • And for weblogs... (Score:3, Informative)

    by scrm ( 185355 ) on Friday August 13, 2004 @05:08AM (#9956713) Homepage
    There's a very interesting post [kottke.org] on kottke.org [kottke.org] that discusses online applications in relation to weblogs. I quote:

    Taking the weblog example to the extreme, you could use TypePad [typepad.com] to write a weblog entry; Flickr [flickr.com] to store your photos; store some mp3s (for an mp3 blog) on your ISP-hosted shell account; your events calendar on Upcoming [upcoming.org]; use iCal to update your personal calendar (which is then stored on your .Mac account); use GMail [gmail.com] for email; use TypeKey [typekey.com] or Flickr's authentication system to handle identity; outsource your storage/backups to Google or Akamai [akamai.com]; you let Feedburner [feedburner.com] "listen" for new content from all those sources,
    transform/aggregate/filter it all, and publish it to your Web space; and you manage all this on the Web at each individual Web site or with a Watson-ish [karelia.com] desktop client.

  • There not 'online apps' (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oliverthered ( 187439 ) <oliverthered@hotmail. c o m> on Friday August 13, 2004 @06:46AM (#9956981) Journal
    I've just tried a few of those 'online' apps, they ate loads of memory and one crashed firefox, hardly the things I would expect from an 'online' app.

    Instead they are just regular application embeded in a web page, woopie, I can do that with anything Java.

    I was expecting the kind of thin client that I would be able to access from a mobile device, or run on a pritated copy of Crippled Windows (TM) that's been imported from Asia.

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