Michael Robertson posts that he is releasing ajaxlaunch.com. It's having some technical issues (downtime here and there), but the issue here is applications-as-web-services.
Zimbra, the only real application written with Ajax, shows us that it is possible to create compelling ajax applications.
ajaxWrite is the first offering from Michael's ajaxLaunch concept. Alec Saunders pulls no punches as he digitally rips Michael a new one for the low-feature-set release.
Om Malik made me laugh with this quip:
Our good buddy, Michael "disruption is my middle name" Robertson is at it again. After taking on Vonage and Skype with SIPphone and Gizmo Project, he is now going after Microsoft's cash-cow application, Microsoft Word, using a new online word processor called ajaxWrite.
Truly, Michael is a guy we all seem to dearly love, yet can't help poking at. Maybe it's because of statements like this from Michael:
With this mission I quietly formed a new company last year and set about realizing our first products. I became the CEO and have been working with my team to build our cornerstone applications, the first of which we're launching today.
Heh.
Having poked fun a Michael a bit, I'll now speak in his defense and show the true strength of his concept.
ajaxLaunch can provide a word processor or spreadsheet with exactly as much strength as you need - when you need that strength. How many times have we been working in an airport on Excel and wanted to do something ... only to get the message "Please insert Microsoft Excel Install CD 2"?
So maybe we all start out looking at the WordPad interface and as we need more power the launch system gives that on-demand. No longer do I need to have Outlook or Word hogging my system resources. Bloatware could be a thing of the past. But one man's bloat is another man's mission critical feature.
Bloat is therefore relative and context sensitive. ajaxLaunch could deliver us not just applications, but applications in context.
Photo: Luis Tejo
Technorati Tags: michaelrobertson, michael robertson, ajax, ajaxlaunch, ajaxwrite, web 2.0, microsoft, context
Bloat is a valid point, but once you actually get on the airplane, try using AJAXwrite. Most flights still don't offer internet so web-only apps are worthless in that case.
Posted by: TDavid | 23 March 2006 at 13:43
No doubt.
Always-on is certainly not a reality.
Not only that, but subscription pricing for everything would certainly rapidly grow old. Subscription fatigue would set in rapidly.
Posted by: Jim Benson | 23 March 2006 at 15:22
Yeah, and as you probably saw, ajaxWrite is a misnomer as well. There's no Ajax in it. It's all a XUL application.
An ironic weekend for sure.
Best,
Dion
Posted by: Dion Hinchcliffe | 27 March 2006 at 18:49