In the comments on Deane’s latest bit of Spolsky-worship, I had postulated that, given the idea that thick clients for the web can provide a better experience, and Firefox’s increasing market share, 2006 could become the year of XUL.
There was a great link posted on digg this morning that illustrates this. Firefox users, check out MAB, a XUL-based Amazon search interface. (After you click through, click on the ‘launch’ link on the right).
There you have it. A thick client that runs on nearly any OS, and requires no installed components other than a Mozilla browser (and with Firefox’s popularity, that may already be there). What if, say, Basecamp worked this way? Or Flickr? I think we’re fast approaching the point where it would be commercially viable to at least create an alternate interface for a web app in XUL.
Simplicity and ubiquity matter (or, How reality mugged Joel Spolsky): This a good post that discusses how Joel Spolsky changed his mind about user interfaces. I knew Spolsky was very thick-client oriented for a long time, but this post has some interesting insights and information on how and why…
That's wicked awesome. I really wish more apps (Basecamp, eZ publish, etc.) developed XUL interfaces.
Someone should build a XUL template for Movable Type. If anyone out there knows of one, I'll install it here.
Whoa. Sweet.
I wonder how creative XUL lets you get with the interface design.... have to go read some on this now.
