Apparently, everybody had read this article except for me.
(I found it after I read this

Not even one year ago -- June 13, 2004 -- Joel "Joel on Software" Spolsky said it in one of the most-linked-to essays on software development of the year, How Microsoft Lost the API War:

Well now I have read the article - and it turns out I didn't need to (though I'm glad I did). I have first hand knowlege about what the author is talking about because I stopped trying to write rich applications for the desktop in 1998. Since then every line of code I have written (except maybe a few dos batch files) has been for a web application. I stopped caring about the Windows API 7 years ago. And that is "How microsoft lost the API war."

The web captured my imagination the first time I logged on with a graphical browser in 1994. (The web hadn't quite captured my imagination the first time I browsed via the text based lynx browser from my shell account). I really thought the web was the coolest thing ever. Hyper-text multi-media global information resource that had a very low barrier to entry. A place where anyone and everyone could self publish. A place rich with amazing creative design. And, I must admit, at the time, an abundant source of free girly pictures was a bonus.

I knew that I would be developing for the web one day. It merged all of my interests. Interest in tinkering with code - Interest in Graphic Design - Interest in writing - Interest in learning. I didn't see a future in the desktop... I saw it on the web... and that's where I have been ever since.

andre