[majidazimi]

The number of small scale desktop applications (like restaurant accounting/billing or tax management) in Turkey or similar markets exceeds all forms of mobile/web apps combined. In my home town in Iran, C# desktop developer is the number one job offer for the last 10-15 years. The market is full of small businesses that need simple desktop apps to run the business.

[kragen]

Why would you want to build a restaurant accounting/billing app as a desktop app instead of a browser app?

[ivanhoe]

Just a few things that come to mind:

- Because you still need to bill your customers even when the net is down or slow,

- It works faster and more reliable on old, low on memory PC that you probably have. Also can work with old printers, barcode readers and pretty much anything out there,

- Power of habit (a big deal),

- Don't want to keep your accounting details on a remote server. This is probably of less importance for restaurants, but very important point for various trading companies, as it's not uncommon for someone to bribe accounting firms to leak info on competition.

[astura]

Because that's what the jobs that are hiring are for in the place the GP lives? I mean, I'd rather browse HN than do work all day, but nobody's going to pay me for that.

I was an early web developer who transitioned into a modern one as time passed but I've moved back to desktop application development as of late because that's what was hiring in my area at the time I was looking for a job and I simply am not married to a particular technology.

[kragen]

Obviously there are people involved in the process of building these desktop apps who aren't the ones who decide they'll be desktop apps. But somebody is making that decision. I'm asking what leads that person to make that choice. Is it beneficial to the restaurant as a business? How?

I'm not asking about why people are willing to do what their boss asks for or their customers offer to pay for.

[briandear]

Because you can do more with a desktop app than a browser app. Not everything is or should be in the goddamned cloud.

[kragen]

Sure you can, Brian, but those things aren't relevant to a simple line of business app like that. And I agree that it shouldn't be in the cloud; it should be on a Raspberry Pi in the back room of the restaurant, next to the Wi-Fi. Or, well, a Chinese clone, since you wouldn't want an Iranian restaurant to be dependent on imports from England.

[dvfjsdhgfv]

I'd ask the opposite question.

[kragen]

Why would you want to build it as a browser app? Well, a guy named Paul Graham wrote an essay about that. Maybe you've heard of it?