subtleGradient on Slingshot Beta
I was recently offered access into the Joyent Slingshot Beta
I’ll be discussing the details with David Young^CEO^ in a few minutes. Do you have any questions you’d like me to ask for you?
Obviously the most pressing question that most people seem to be wondering is how this puppy compares with FireFox 3 and Apollo alpha.
Well, I’m also looking into Apollo. I’ve done quite a bit of looking into the deets. I’ve already hacked on some local Apollo craziness.
Apollo is a way to run static web tech on your local machine. That means you have the ability to run HTML, Javascript and Flash. You’ll eventually be able to mix in some PDF in there too. Now, don’t get me wrong, Apollo is totally stinking awesome! But, I think a few of their best features are also their greatest faults. I’ll leave the Apollo rant for another article.
I haven’t really looked into Firefox 3 much more than running the alpha to compatibility test CrazyEgg. AFAIK FireFox 3 is just going to be FireFox 2 with some fancy offline capabilities and such. I also strongly feel that some of FireFox’s best features are also their worst. Again, more on that later.
So, that brings us back to Slingshot.
What’s the big difference?
Ruby! That’s the big difference. You’ll be able to write real desktop applications using Ruby On Rails! No installing a custom framework. No crazy custom application bundles. Not tied into a web browser as just another window or tab. Full blown web applications on your desktop using real binaries and junk!
That’s the promise at least. We’ll see how this stuff pans out in the end. I’m keeping my expectations really low so that I’m not disappointed.
I’ll be blogging about this thing as I use it.
So, expect more content from me soon.