Re:Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?
by WilliamEdward on Sunday May 17, 2020 @04:37PM
(#23215230)
It was the ambiguity of the word 'web' that tripped me up. You still need a network of computers for email to be useful.
Re:Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?
by Jtsummers on Sunday May 17, 2020 @05:21PM
(#23215592)
`Web`[0] is shorthand for `World Wide Web` which is specifically about HTTP/HTTPS and/or the applications built on that protocol. It is an entirely unambiguous word in this context.
`Internet`[1] is distinct, and that's the general purpose network of networks that you refer to which the Web is built on top of.
Re:Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?
by PNWChris on Sunday May 17, 2020 @06:42PM
(#23216188)
Totally fair! Frankly, I only know the distinction from a high school computers teacher who was adamant about the distinction.
I guess the easiest way to get the name is to see the “Web” as a “web” of hyper text documents, where hyperlinks act as the strands in the web (graph edges, if you will).
Honestly, like you say, it’s all built on top of a computer network (yet another web/graph). As a consequence, the distinction never really made a ton of sense to me, either.
Alas, this is the common parlance, so it is what it is.
Email really is just a protocol for message sending, and it lives on it’s own port with its own server. If you have an email client and access to an email server (POP/SMTP/however), you can use email over the internet but without the “web”.
Basically, the web email client ought not be the only email client.