[fullstackchris]

Nitpick here: both models are still SaaS, the only difference is the first way was deployed via (desktop?) app and the second via web.

But indeed, web is typically the most flexible option unless you are leveraging something on the OS that would otherwise be cumbersom or impossible via web (not often the case)

[satvikpendem]

How is the first one SaaS? It's a perpetual (seemingly one time) license they said.

[sirjaz]

Unfortunately, a vast majority of WebApps are hot garbage and even the good ones can never be as functional or as performative as a native app. We have such powerful machines, but we relegate them to such a horrible method of using them.

[6510]

Very few components are needed to make a bare bones web browser that is more of a vm. It would need one or more advantages over normal www browsers. Applications could be memory, and computationally heavy, it could store its data locally with some guarantees, it could run conventional web application on very crappy hardware. A new platform also offers countless opportunities to do new things or do things differently. That list is endless.

[cyberax]

WebApps (even though I hate most of them) absolutely can be as fast as native apps. E.g.: Linear, Slack.

But it requires very careful engineering.

[neverartful]

In my experience they are not nearly as fast.