[sfennell]

I think you are kind of missing what is going on with a lot of html 5 development. There is actually little need to communicate with the server with a lot of web apps. Like illustrator, look at Aviary (I think they use flash right now) but the application is in the browser but all computation happens on the client, the only communication with the server would be to save the file. I see this being the same way with audio/video etc. There is the overhead and the performance issues, but not really a delay.

[VBprogrammer]

I hate to drag this point up again, but the most advanced HTML5/Javascript demos are a poor imitation of what could be done on the desktop 10 years ago.

My personal view is that the web is good at things which are inherently communication centric. Nothing else justifies the restrictions that working within the web browser brings. Flash might be the whipping boy of internet technologies, but at least its reasonably write once.

I think the thin client architecture is a paradigm that will constantly cycle in and out of fashion but never quite deliver on its promise.