[teleforce]

We just into new year and already we have one of the contenders of HN article of the year. I know HN does not has this ranking but this article is impressive.

I agree most of the points in the article except the point according to the article that local-first app must be free and open source.

Arguably one of the best app I've been using is the original Napster. At that time TIME magazine did not has the breakthrough of the year award, otherwise the Napster surely the breaktrough of the year when it was released back in 1999.

Napster single-handedly introduced and popularized p2p concept, and listening to song need not to be cumbersome and expensive. The latter facts were vindicated with the iTunes and iPod success. It also fit the very definition of local-first app defined in the original Kleppmann's article.

[esseph]

I was probably 16 or 17 at the time when napster (himself) was hanging out on efnet/irc and working on the program that became Napster. It was wild to see that period play out like it did with a front row seat. That 98ish-2000 and early 2001 era felt like we were on the cusp of so many things with just cool computer technologies that were coming of age. And then 9/11 happened, and everybody's mood soured for quite awhile.