Is most software development today in web applications?

Question

Are most of the software developments happening in web apps? Because nowadays most of the forums and blogs seem to be talking only about web development. I don't do any web applications and i was wondering if i should start learning.

Answer 1

It's easy to get that impression, but don't be mislead. These days, the action's in teledildonics.

Answer 2

The web is pretty much they way of the future as shared and collaborated communication is important, but I don't think that web applications in the sense that we have a browser, a client-scripting language and a server-side back end is they way of the future. However, Internet technology has matured over the passed 10 years and there's plenty of things to be learned from that.

I myself find developing desktop applications that interactive with server-side "things" over HTTP (just HTTP) particularly useful.

But then, that's just me...

Answer 3

It depends on what you want to do. If you want to work for a startup company, or launch your own startup, then having web skills is essential.

If you want to work on things that are actually technically challenging, web skills are less important since they never apply to the technically complex issues. Sexy issues like scaling and high performance computing and anything having to do with hardware has nothing to do with the web, except that it is used as a base on which to develop web apps

Answer 4

I think the reason web development received, is receiving and will receive the most attention is because eventually someone will ask for the equivalent to run on the web browsers. You can see examples of this everywhere. We had desktop email apps, someone invented the same version running on the browsers. Word, spreadsheet, powerpoint, office, interactive maps, to do lists, games, etc you name it. So while there are other happenings in other areas of software development, they would almost always end up sharing the web interface. If you build a great desktop app, I am certain there's at least one manager, one customer out there asking for the ability to run on the browsers. In addition, in recent years, Ajax certainly didn't help make web dev more quiet.

Answer 5

The overall answer is yes.

While there are plenty of jobs in a variety of fields most development is being done for custom internal applications. Businesses everywhere are beginning to recognize their need for custom applications and the most cost effective type to date happens to be web apps. They're simple to deploy, can handle hundreds of concurrent users, nearly 100% platform independent by design, are easily secured and, when compared to the alternative client/server desktop application they have a very quick turnaround time.

This isn't to say there isn't plenty of opportunity elsewhere, and if you dislike working on web apps you should definitely search out those opportunities. Still, you might want to mess around with PHP, ASP or .Net and read up on AJAX if for no other reason than a random question pops up on an interview.

Answer 6

The answer is that, no, the majority of programming is still in desktop and client-server applications, but yes you should pick up some web skills as it makes you much more marketable to future employers.

Answer 7

When looking on the web it certainly appears as if most development is being done for the web. However most developers I know in person seem to be working on desktop apps.

Answer 8

I think yes perhaps this is so, however if you want to distinguish yourself I think that for any website to stand out it should also provide downloadable applications that can communicate with the website and provide some form of offline capabilities, but only when it's actually needed though.

Answer 9

I dare say the .... yes I dare. The really really smart people rarely do web.

They may make Firefox, but not firefox.com.

Non-website development still happens. I respectfully think it is upon the backs of these giants that web developers stand.

• PHP developers wouldn't be here if it wasn't for C++ developers (php is written in C++).
• Client side scripting can't be utilized without a client side application to interpret and run the script.

I am not saying web developers are dumb.

The business perception is that web development is an avenue to fast cash. IMHO hence many of the start up companies, and large demand for website developers.

Answer 10

Short answer: Not really, although it might appear so.

There is a lot of web development going on in two areas:

• Public websites
• Internal websites

But one thing that a lot of people forget about is embedded development such a lot of the stuff that happens on the cell phones, automation of manufacturing, scientific computations, frameworks.

A lot of software we use everyday we downplay or it does not appear as software so we do not count it. One such example is my printer, it has a display and does bluetooth, network, wireless, faxes, reads from multimedia cards, resizes/changes pictures, etc. All of these are done in software, software just like the web software, except it runs on very specific hardware. All the embedded devices we use daily have little chips, with little (arguably) pieces of software, but there are a lot of these devices out there, and there is a lot of software development going on for these devices.