Magnetk and Joyent have created Slingshot , a tool that allows a Rails application to work offline! At the same time it was released the Gran Paradiso Alpha 3 , or Firefox 3, also ready to take on this new frontier dell'offline. We can say without exaggeration, at least from what we read on the net, which started a real competition where deployed Adobe Apollo , FireFox 3 and new contenders as Slingshot .
Slingshot , however, aims to develop (or bring) a Rails application directly on your desktop and run them in a " simple and transparent ";
Joyent Slingshot allows developers to deploy Rails applications That Work The Same online and offline (with synchronization) and with drag into and out of the application just like a standard desktop application.
For a demonstration of Slingshot see the Quicktime movie.
There is, therefore, a true and proper direct COMPETITION IN between Slingshot and Apollo . The latter, in fact, ultimately has a different target, as indicated by Wikipedia 
"A cross-OS runtime That allows developers to employ Their existing web development skills ( Flash , Flex , HTML , Ajax ) to build and deploy desktop Rich Internet Applications . "
Interesting - instead - are the characteristics of FireFox 3 (as the Animated PNG - APNG ), which places itself in a different manner from the solutions mentioned above.
The contenders share the characteristic that, then, is this new trend to work - or to allow work - offline! It is curious that this interest has exploded almost suddenly, in a historical moment that sees the network at the center of many interests. Moreover, in these last years, the spread of broadband has led users to remain continuously connected to the network, an umbilical cord unthinkable until a few years ago, the era of the Dial-Up is now over.
It is this need for perpetual connection has given rise to the generation 2.0 (web2.0), the social contribution of all because all connected. The offline is nonstante all this, a technical requirement, not a change of trend. Probably it is of great interest to invest in such technologies. The Wireless, most likely, will dominate in the near future, but unlike a cable may be more subject to sudden fainting (!
Being able to work disconnected obviously has a number of advantages - as often happens - now we can not even see clearly.
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