Mozilla's answer to Adobe AIR
Adobe brings web apps to the desktop with AIR, Microsoft is doing similar things with Silverlight, and now Mozilla announces Prism. The biggest difference between Prism and it's competitors is that you don't have to do anything extra to create a Prism app from a web app.
Here's a quote from their announcement: "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. Prism is built on Firefox, so it supports rich internet technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux."
Personally, I still don't see why everybody is making a big fuss over making desktop apps out of web apps. I think web apps are just fine the way they are, and as of yet I haven't seen any AIR app that shows me why I should be excited about the desktop as a development platform. However, I think Mozilla doesn't want to see more web developers moving to proprietary platforms, and thus their efforts with Prism built on plain ol' web standards.
Jake Munson
37 Yrs old
Just to explain one: Filesystem access. I hate building a backend admin system for a site that allows the site owner to add pictures easily... only to have them use the stupid file upload control that the browser offers. Instead, I can give them an app that allows them to drag pictures from the desktop or another application and drop it onto the product info (or whatever) that they wish to add the picture to. I can receive the drag operation, then pull the file straight from the system and upload it to the server.
I don't think that the hybrid app space is going to be nearly as useful outside the firewall as inside (figuratively speaking). Most of these features will be best applied to applications used inside companies and groups. There will be some public apps that exist in the hybrid space, but mostly private, I think.
The Adobe Integrated Runtime contains a browser. It works on the desktop.
Mozilla's WebRunner/Prism is a way to use the Firefox engine, but without the Firefox chrome. It, like AIR, works upon the desktop.
Microsoft Silverlight is not like the other two, because it works inside the browsers, not outside the browsers and upon the desktop.
This has been clear from the start, and has been repeated (repeatedly!;-) by Chambers, Downey, Dura, Stewart, me, and lots of other Adobe staffers.
We need to understand how you might still find it possible to compare AIR and Silverlight. Can you elucidate? Thanks.
jd/adobe
I don't know much about Silverlight, to be honest. The only reason I mentioned them was because the article I linked to about Prism compares itself to AIR and Silverlight. I do know you can code Silverlight with .Net, which is typically a desktop thing...maybe that's where they see a comparison.
WPF is desktop thing WPF/E (Silverlight) is browser thing.
WPF can't also be compared with AIR because it was never marketed as cross browser thing, it is extenstion layer for .NET programmers, very good one, powerfull and Win oriented.
And to answer the other comments that Prism is just "using Kiosk mode or running a browser with command line siwtches to turn off the toolbars", it's a lot more than that. From the linked article: "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."