If 20 years ago some clairvoyant genius had foreseen what web applications would become, and decided to create a sane and secure alternative, and by some miracle had managed to pull it off without falling into numerous tarpits owing to an unsinkable combination of intelligence, persistence and vision, it still never would have taken off because it would be too complicated to gain traction compared to the simplicity of HTML.
The key thing you need to wrap your head around is that software ecosystems are not designed; they accrete and evolve organically, and no one has any power to change that.
No. The desktop is not cross-platform, cross-media and installation free. Your flippant dismissal of the real advances that the web brought to common computing renders your opinion moot.
As consultant, part of my job is to do web applications when the customers demand it, and web development is everything but cross-platform.
The amount of hacks one has to write to have CSS, JavaScript and HTML working flawlessly across all desired operating systems, browser versions and handsets renders the cross-platform argument moot.
As for installation free, the same is possible with the desktop applications as well.
There's never been anything in the history of computing that is 10% as cross-platform and cross-media as the web. Your head is firmly embedded in the sand my friend.
You mean you could make a statement about my ignorance in isolation, but you obviously can't make a statement that supports that opinion. If you want to make outrageous claims like desktop programming is cross-platform and cross-media then you need evidence, you can't just proclaim things like "desktop programming can be installation-free". You need evidence. Especially since you were responding to my post and going off on a bizarre unrelated tangent.
The key thing you need to wrap your head around is that software ecosystems are not designed; they accrete and evolve organically, and no one has any power to change that.