Patrick of kalzumeus.com has written an excellent analysis of why application developers are shifting towards web development. I highly recommend it:
His analysis of the difficulties involved in traditional code maintenance ring particularly true with my own past experience doing technical support for a niche point-of-sale vendor. I won't go into too many specifics, but in my opinion, the programmers and support representatives at the company should have shifted their focus towards documentation and usability instead of focusing on their aging, 16-bit software working with Windows and Citrix.
I think this article can be taken as an indication towards a part of a larger trend towards network-based computing. For years, I've been saying that we're heading back this way, what with this whole "internet thing." Naturally, my friends dismissed me as a crank, and left me in the corner with my Pop Rocks and NES. My insistence that mainframe UNIX was ahead of its time fell on deaf ears, but no longer thanks to the internet!
