Thick Client or Browser Based? How about both?

For quite a while now, there has been a question from software developers about what is a better software architecture for delivering functionality to people, browser based or more of a thick client approach.

The major argument brought forth for browser based tools is that people want to be able to work from anywhere using their favorite tools on different computers or even operating systems, even if they do not have the permissions (or rights) to install those tools.

One argument for development of thick client is a more “robust” experience for the user. Thick clients historically been more stable then their web-based counterparts and provide a “richer” interface for the users.

I have different reasons:

I don’t know about you, but I have had enough experience with web-based authoring tools, that left me wanting to cry. This crying feeling usually happens when I have authored a very long e-mail or performed some amount of work and accidentally hit the wrong button, refreshed the browser, or the browser just up and died, … and hour(s) of hard work just disappears before my eyes.

I want both!

After tearing my hair out after enough episodes of losing work, I have attempted to try to look for services that allow the use of both an online (browser based) editor and an offline editor for use when I’m not home or don’t have my laptop.

Web-based editors allow me to see and edit my data, whether it is e-mail, blog, photos, … from any where, as long as I’m connected to the Internet. The use of offline tools allow me a more “robust” experience. In the case of an offline blogging tool, it will allowing me to work on multiple blog entries without having to publish them to the web or be connected to the web. Having a web- based service that allows both options gives me both the flexibility and security that I need.

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