What’s the big deal with RIA?
Rich Internet Applications are about more than visual bling and animations. It’s the beginning of the end of the “traditional” desktop application. I’m really excited about RIA in general, because I think it portends big changes in the way applications are developed and delivered. How exactly will that change happen, and what will it be? That question begs another question: what is the point of RIA, and what’s all the buzz about?
In a nutshell, RIA applications are client apps that are delivered over the web. They run in a sandboxed runtime environment on the client, and get their data mostly through services hosted in the cloud. So what’s the big deal?
The runtime is the big deal. With a sandboxed runtime environment, you get a few things for free. Most important among these is security and cross-platform compatibility. Whether it’s an AIR or Sliverlight applicaiton, it will (theoretically) run anywhere the environment is installed. No worrying about HTML/CSS formatting or quirky browser implementations- if the environment is there, it runs. You also get the speed benefit of moving processing back to the client. No more waiting for IIS/Apache to process your request- RIA apps run locally. As a developer you also get the rich UX capabilites, which could be the most important aspect of any application.
So why are Microsoft and Adobe beating a path to developers’ doors? Why do they care about RIA? Here’s a tweet from Jeff Atwood:
“When everything is a web app, maybe we’ll have new operating systems…”
This simple, casual comment sums it up. Eventually, just about every application will be delivered over the web. Sticking in a CD or downloading an installer is just so 2005. The winner(s) in the RIA platform space will offer to developers a potential audience of millions of users, regardless of OS. All this with practically free delivery over the web. That’s a big deal.
As the move to RIA continues, “web application development” will mean less HTML and more XAML/MXML. Browser compatibility will be less of a concern. Web developers will rely on the platforms to handle runtime compatibility while they focus on application development (as it should be!) A single codebase targeted to a RIA platform can support a potentially huge audience, making development cheaper and reducing testing cycles.
RIA is still in its infancy. So far I see way more potential than real applications, though that’s changing fast. I think Adobe’s AIR is currently beating Silverlight for features overall, but I see that gap closing with each release of Silverlight. Over time, I see both platforms effective across just about every major market OS, including mobile. As Adobe and Microsoft figure out how loose they can safely make the sandbox, more powerful features will be offered.
Eventually, I see a time when users spend more total minutes interacting with RIA applications than they do their OS. I see fully-featured RIA “desktop replacements.” Imagine booting up any old OS, visiting a website, and getting a completely different experience wherever you are. Store your data in the cloud, run a RIA OS, and the local OS suddenly doesn’t matter so much. Call it a “Virtual OS” or a “Cloud OS” or whatever you like, it’s coming fast.
The one thing I can say for sure is this: no one can say with certainty what RIA will mean over the long term, but it smells to me like opportunity. Shifts like this come maybe once a decade. It’s not often you can see the swell of a new meme ahead of its crest. Getting into RIA development is easy and getting easier, so jump in! The water’s great!
