Hacker News Reader

Comment by noobster | Hacker News Reader

Isn't Google chrome just a browser? How can this be a threat to a runtime like AIR? Looks like the author is trying to compare a runtime with browser. Does that make any sense? Please correct me if i am wrong.

View on HN

It does actually. If you are thinking of offline-enabling your web app, you are more likely to do it with Gears rather than AIR, if Chrome is installed on 90% of the computers

"Chrome is installed in 90% of the computers" is a big if. Still, I like the idea.

You won't actually need to wait for that. I read somewhere that Gears is based on the HTML 5 specs. So once the other browsers go about supporting HTML 5, there's no need for Gears/AIR if you need offline capability.

But IE won't support HTML 5 any time soon.

It doesnt actually.Adobe AIR is not a browser dependent entity like Google Gears. AIR is a runtime. AIR and Gears are not comparable entities.

No.

Take a closer look at integrated Gears with local web server and offline JavaScript hooks + ability to run webapps without browser "chrome" from icons/shortcuts.

Now add advanced rich JavaScript/HTML with ready to use open-source libraries on top of the fastest dynamic language VM in the universe and you probably will see that Chrome is more than "just a browser".

You are right. The article doesn't make any sense.The article author is trying to imply that ,as Google Chrome comes with Gears,Gears could get more popular than AIR one day and thus be a treat to Adobe. I disagree with the author completely.

Unlike Gears,Adobe AIR doesn't require a browser to exists. Adobe AIR can do everything Gears can do and more. Air is not just about building offline/online apps ("occasionaly connected apps") . Air is about building desktop apps. You can build apps that never connects to the internet in AIR.

Google gears is not a runtime. It requires a browser to survive. AIR is a runtime own its own (almost like Java runtime, if you need anything to compare to). Air apps can be built just using html/javascript. Flash is not required. If you want, you can use flash too .

AIR allows traditional web developers to migrate to desktop development without learning C or Java or VB or whatever. In short AIR allows web developers to build complete desktop apps like Winamp,iCal,Paint etc.that doesnt require a browser/internet connection to exist.

In short, comparing Adobe AIR and Google gears (and hence Google chrome's threat to AIR's existence) doesn't make any sense at all.

the competition between AIR and Gears may not be obvious initially because like what you said, Air and Gears are 2 totally different technologies altogether.

But Gears does affect AIR adoption in some ways. Most AIR developers create AIR apps not as standalone desktop apps but as offline versions of a webapp (eg. Twirl for twitter).

So if you are a developer and you want to offline-enable your webapp (eg. Zimbra), you could do it with Gears or AIR. If Gears is already installed on most of your users' computers, you would more likely do it with Gears. (why force your users to download a piece of sofware to run your AIR app?)

I would say Gears is all about extending the capabilities of web apps by adding desktop-like features like local storages while Air is more of a toolset to build cross-platform desktop software easily.

Each has its own strengths and depending on what your solution requires, one of them would be the appropriate technology choice. But since Google has been hammering the point that the web is the platform of the future, i would expect more developers to develop for the web instead of the desktop (which is a major blow to AIR)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com