By 把桌面放进浏览器里面，还是把浏览器里的东西放到桌面上来，RIA开始出现两种极端的分化，Adobe的AIR是把东西从浏览器里拿出来，而Microsoft则是刚加入RIA竞争行列，开始尝试把桌面放进浏览器里，你又如何看待？
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Adobe AIR: Is breaking out of the browser the right next step?
Adobe AIR: 从浏览器里逃出来是正确的下一步吗？
原文地址：http://danny-t.co.uk/index.php/2007/11/18/adobe-air-is-breaking-out-of-the-browser-the-right-next-step/
If you read my blog regularly, you’ll know I was quick to jump on the AIR trip. I do still very much like AIR, have seen some good AIR apps and believe it has some good potential. I’ve played with a couple of AIR apps, have seen several AIR presentations (even presented one) and made numerous blog posts about it. So I feel I’m justified in my opinion that I’m not completely convinced that this is the best next step for RIAs, or at least not the best place we can end up.
如果你定期看我的blog，你就会知道我很快就投入了AIR的开发之旅。自从看到一些很好的AIR应用而且我相信它有很好的潜力之后，我就非常喜欢AIR了。我玩过两个AIR应用，也看过一些AIR演示（甚至自己做了一个），并写了许多关于AIR的文章。因此我认为我的观点是很有道理的：我不完全相信这是RIA应用最好的下一步，或者说至少不是一个很好的结尾。
I mentioned “played with a couple of AIR apps”, why only two? To be honest it’s probably slightly more, but still only very few. I’ve downloaded and installed the Pownce AIR app, now uninstalled as I didn’t use it. I downloaded and installed the Finetune AIR app, now uninstalled as I don’t keep much music on my computer and so it didn’t offer me much more than the in-browser version. I’ve also downloaded a couple of other apps out of interest but only was looking out of my interest in AIR and not so much because of the usefulness of the app. All gone, I currently have zero AIR apps installed.
我提到说我”玩过两个AIR应用”，为什么只有两个呢？老实点说，可能确实不只两个，但仍然非常少。我曾经下载并安装了Pownce AIR应用，现在已经卸载了，因为我从来没有用过它。我也下载并安装了Finetune AIR应用，现在也卸载了，因为我在我的电脑上保存许多音乐，所以它并没有给我提供比浏览器版本更多的用途。我还下载了两个兴趣之外的其他应用，但是只能看出来我的兴趣在AIR上，这些都是因为这些应用没有什么用。所有的都卸载了，我现在连一个AIR应用都没有了。
The fact I uninstalled them isn’t really the point i’m trying to make, for me, those apps just didn’t add much value so I removed them, that could be the same as on any platform. The thing that bothers me about AIR apps is how few I can be bothered to try. I generally am not that inclined to download and install the applications in the first place. This is because breaking out of the browser breaks up my user experience. I love RIAs, I love the ease in which I can access, use and share them. These things just aren’t as good when I have to download and install the application I want to use, I just want to use it.
事实上，我并不是有意要去卸载他们，对于我来说，这些应用程序并没有给我带来太多的价值，因此我要卸载他们，不管是在哪个平台上，这都是一样的。关于AIR唯一让我感到困扰的事情就是如何能不受打扰地去尝试。我并不喜欢去下载安装应用程序，这是因为从浏览器里跑出来破外了我的用户体验。我喜欢RIA，我喜欢它们易于获取、使用并分享。当我开始需要下载并安装这些应用程序的时候，这些事情都不再这么美好了，我只是想使用它们而已。
Okay, so the features that AIR offers aren’t available to the Flash player and I do think those features are hugely valuable. I just don’t think running an RIA as a completely separate entity to the browser works too well. A large draw for an RIA is simplicity and availability, both of which out-of-browser RIAs restrict.
好了，因为AIR提供的许多特性中在Flashplayer里面并不可用，所以我认为这些特性都具有很高的价值。我只是不认为让一个RIA应用完全脱离浏览器运行有多好。对于RIA来说最好的就是简单和实用，离开了浏览器，这两项都会受到限制。
Take Buzzword, which is a truely remarkable RIA and in my opinion is superior to any other online AND offline wordprocessing tool. I’ve not seen the AIR version of it which I believe is on it’s way and I can already see that what AIR offers will be a great addition to it. But wouldn’t it be even better if all the connectivity detection, local file storage, drag and drop etc were available to the in-browser version? If installing AIR gave me all those capabilities as an in-browser resource as well as a stand-alone runtime? Okay so no custom chrome for in-browser. Big deal! Apps like Buzzword already stamp such an impression with their branding and interface you really easily forget you have some boring browser buttons up there. We now have full-screen in Flash Player, let’s work out those secrity issues and make more use of that.
以Buzzword为例，它是一个非凡的RIA应用，在我看来它比任何一个在线的或者离线的文字处理工具都出色。我还没有见过它的RIA版并听说它的AIR版已经在开发中了，我可以预见AIR带给它的巨大能力。但是，如果把所有的连通性检测、本地文件存储、拖放等等都放在浏览器版本里不是更好吗？如果安装AIR能够给我们所有的这些能力吗，包括作为一个在浏览器里的资源以及一个离线运行时？因此没有针对浏览器的自定义目录。像Buzzword这样的应用已经用它们的品牌和界面给了我们很深的印象，你很容易忘记你还有一些很单调的浏览器按钮在那里。我们的Flashplayer里面有全屏了，让我们从那些安全条例下冲出来，让它发挥更大的作用吧！
I know it’s not so easy with all the security sandbox constraints of running in browser but is there really that much difference to me saying “yes let this application i’m installing have access to the nether regions of my PC” vs “Oh, I tried to do something in this online app that wants access to my PC? Oh go on then let it”.
我知道这并不那么容易，要受到浏览器中安全沙箱的限制。但差距是否真的有我说的这么大：”是的，我正在安装的这个应用程序已经进入了我电脑的地狱！”以及”噢，我正准备用这个在线应用程序做一些事情，它居然要进入我的电脑？哦，没关系的，就让他进去吧！”
Security gurus can tell me that what i’m asking for isn’t possible and why it shouldn’t be, but I feel as long as I ultimately make the decision on what does and doesn’t have access then it shouldn’t matter whether this is in or out of browser. Am I alone in thinking this? Is this something that will be possible in the not-too-distant? I’ve not done enough homework to answer that but it certainly makes more sense to me as in some ways AIR feels like we’re taking a step backwards.
安全大师可以告诉我，我所要求的是不可能的，以及为什么不可能。但是我觉得，只要最终是由我来决定什么可以什么不可以，那就与在浏览器和不在浏览器没有什么关系了。只有我一个人这么想吗？这是不是会在不远的将来变成可能呢？我没有足够的能力还回答这个问题，但是这确实给我带来了更大的意义，就像AIR让我们感觉我们后退了一步。
原文之后还有来自Adobe以及Buzzword的工程师的回复，Adobe的Ryan Stewart在其blog上写了一篇回复文章：Would You Still Use AIR if Most of the Features Were Available in the Browser?