Kevin Marshall's Epic Work Blog for Awesome People

Mozilla Prism - Splitting Apart Generally Accepted Ideas

I read this post from Mozilla labs a few days ago.  I can't sleep so why not blog.

What is Prism?

"Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop."

Well I can't disagree with that. 

"Unlike Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight, we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web."

I can disagree with that.

Let's start with AIR.  If AIR is a platform then FireFox is a platform.  AIR has the webkit engine to render html/css/javascript and load swf files.  Same as FireFox.  How is it replacing the web?  AIR solely exists to display web content on a desktop.  Maybe I'm ignorant on the internal working of AIR, but it seems to me to be essentially a web browser that allows some offline storage.

I could be wrong, but Silverlight is not a proprietary platform replacing the web.  There is the open source version, Moonlight which makes it non-proprietary.  Secondly, it extends the web platform not replaces. How is Silverlight a web replacing platform but Javascript is not?  Both are programming languages on the web that run on the client to create richer experiences.  The only difference is that Silverlight has to be added as a plug-in, but browser developers have already built-in support for Javascript.

"Prism lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment.  When invoked, these applications run in their own window"

Maybe I'm over simplifying this but this is basically opening a new browser window for each app and removing the browser chrome?  And I need to download a separate runtime for that innovation? If I download a runtime isn't this a new platform?

Granted it's still new so they have other things planned:

"Prism isn’t a new platform, it’s simply the web platform integrated into the desktop experience. Web developers don’t have to target it separately, because any application that can run in a modern standards-compliant web browser can run in Prism....And while Prism focuses on how web apps can integrate into the desktop experience, we’re also working to increase the capabilities of those apps by adding functionality to the Web itself, such as providing support for offline data storage and access to 3D graphics hardware."

I'm curious to see how offline storage is implemented without developers targeting that in any way.  Same with 3D acceleration.  That clearly won't involve and code changes.

After you add those changes it seems like it really is the same as AIR, but "Unlike Adobe AIR [..] we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web."

A few things bothered me about that post:

1. It seems the authors either misunderstand Prism or Silverlight/AIR
2. The general insinuation that MS/Adobe are trying to F**k up the web with proprietary platforms.  "we’re not building a proprietary platform to replace the web. We think the web is a powerful and open platform". 
3. "Ideally you shouldn’t even have to download Prism, it should just be built into your browser." - Yeah, so should Silverlight and Flash. I don't want to have to install those either.

I am curious to see Silverlight running in Prism though.  Actually I would much prefer to see Silverlight running on AIR.  It's like a platform within a platform within a platform.  The mind can barely fathom.

Long live proprietary platforms that replace the web!