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There are many benefits to the open web as we know it. However, technology and usage always change and its' about adapting, not wishing people weren't using apps. Ideally almost all info would be on the open web. But the open web has drawbacks that cause people to prefer Apps - until this changes we will continue to see the traditional web decline. The open web needs to improve at the pace of apps or faster if it is to survive. How far has HTML and other related tech come since the release of HTML5 (started in 2008 - and wasn't a finalized spec until 2014) ... how far have phones and their apps improved since then? It feels like we are in the 90's, when each browser was so different that websites needed to be optimized for one browser or another - now we have apps that render web content in incompatible ways and hides the data to boot. Web browsers are better now, but things still don't render the same way in every browser... this should not be an issue still. The web was never designed for the modern things we are doing with information - yes web technologies have evolved, but its all built on a system that started only with text and hypertext. Everything else after that was tacked on (CSS and Javascript), and although we can do amazing things with today's web - apps were built from the ground up to handle multimedia and complex interactions in a more straightforward, elegant, and sophisticated way. Yes, there are many examples of building complex application like experiences like GDocs or web-based photoshop alternatives - https://pixlr.com/editor/ - but these are less appealing and capable than native apps. Flash used to cause the same problems for SEO and hiding info from the world - and it sucked for many reasons, didn't evolve much over the years, but it did more than the web could for years because it was built to do something the web couldn't' at the time - provide immersive experiences that were not limited by the confines of traditional web technologies. Lest we forget plugins existed because they filled the gap left by the web. There are many reasons why the web as we know it today is failing users http://arstechnica.com/informa... It sucks that Apps will hide data that ideally would be open - for uses today - and for posterity in the future. I will never argue the ideal that the open web should prevail. I'm not sure what the solution should or could even be - nor will I try to come up with one that will never come to fruition. The whole point of this post is to say that the average person does not care about these issues. They want slick, fast, engaging experiences that fit their needs - the open web isn't doing as well as Apps are at doing just that. If web standards evolved faster - we wouldn’t be talking about this. I love the open web and the benefits it provides for humanity. I have lost a lot of hope in the pure implementation many of you speak f though. Web browsers should be platforms upon which the world operates - and in many cases, they are just that - indeed, thats what Chrome OS was created for. As we speak Chromebooks are rolling out that now run Android apps natively. This is at odds with the original goals of the Chromebook concept. But think about this: Mobile devices usage has surpassed desktops a while ago: https://searchenginewatch.com/... Android is the most widely used mobile OS https://www.netmarketshare.com... and Android apps can now stream to your phone http://www.pocket-lint.com/new... Google is now able to search within apps

Photo organizers, locally installed, Windows:
Zoner Photo Studio
xnView
Nero Mediahome
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Media Pro (Not Freeware)
ACDSee (Not Freeware>
Corel Aftershot (Not Freeware)

Photo editors, browser based:
Pixlr
Polarr
Fotor
iPiccy

Image Hosting:
Piwigo (free to self-host; first party hosting available)
Zenphoto (free to self-host; third party hosting available)
JuiceBox (freemium; self-hosted only)
Flickr
Amazon Prime Photos (you have to be Prime)

Okay, I'm tired of adding links...but depending on what functions of Picasa you're looking to replace, there are plenty of alternatives.

May I present: http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/

No I'm not affiliated with these folks. Just demonstrating what can be done with modern coding for a web browser. The fact that it's fast, very functionality and probably equals the level of say GIMP or Paint .NET but in a browser, kinda shows what can be done with web development.

The GIMP dead on Windows?!

The following was posted on the GIMP Website:

It's been a long time since we last had an active Windows-based developer. Consequently, GIMP has accumulated a plethora of bugs specific for that operating system. As much as we'd like to provide a smooth user experience for Windows users, we simply do not have the required human resources.

Hence, if you are an experienced Windows-based developer who is interested to help GIMP become a first-class citizen in the Windows world, please get in touch with us. Our main communication channels are the gimp-developer mailing list and IRC.

I received a copy of Photoshop Elements with a drawing tablet sold by Wacom for my daughter recently. It does seem to work. Perhaps Adobe is not improving it, but one does not expect Elements to do everything Photoshop does.

I think that Paint.net may have given way to PIXLR Editor for simple tweaking and enhancing.

There are a few Mac-only apps as well, but I gather you may not have a Mac, based on your statement about The GIMP.

No need to imagine a browser based Photoshop, go see it at pixlr

If you can't imagine Photoshop being browser based then I suggest you visit pixlr

I'm really torn on the whole "cloud" idea.

On one hand I do use Gmail and just yesterday came away pretty impressed by http://pixlr.com./ I like the convenience, and I like the way many of of these services keep my desktop and Android phone in sync.


It's one thing to know that your data lives on a specific server box in a specific geographical location. Are we reaching a point where you can't even nail down a specific country that is home to your information?

But that doesn't mean that Flash is necessary for normal websites.

I never said that, but I did say this:

Flash is often misused, but it doesn't mean it doesn't have legitimate uses.

Some people seem to be too eager to see the death of flash, but once flash is gone, the misusers will just move to another tool. And it won't be necessarily better.

Flash benefits are not limited to games and animations, but also things like the Aviary web apps, Pixlr and others, which don't have HTML5 alternatives as good as them yet.

Little Web based games, chat, e-mail, social networking, word processing, image editing, and hundreds of other incredibly popular Web technologies are currently limited by the rendering speed as often as by bandwidth.

Rendering speed is rarely the bottleneck. Slow response from ad networks on ad-heavy pages is a more common bottleneck.

Pixlr, the browser-based image editor, uses Flash to provide a Photoshop-like tool. It will go compute-bound if you use the Clone tool, but most other operations won't hit 100% CPU utilization. Filters take about 100ms or so on modest size images. It's about the same speed as Photoshop itself.

If you want real 3D hardware acceleration in a browser, Shockwave has had it for a decade. Here's a 3D flythrough in Shockwave. There's Quake in Shockwave.

If you need hardware graphics acceleration to implement a word processor or "social networking", something has been very badly designed. Yes, there are a few social networking sites that hit 100% CPU utilization, but that's from terrible implementation. Myspace did a site redesign to clean up their act in that area.

FYI, similar service offered by others:

        http://pixlr.com/
        http://fotoflexer.com/
        http://pixenate.com/
        http://snipshot.com/
        http://www.lunapic.com/editor/
        http://editor.pho.to/
        http://aviary.com/tools/phoenix
        http://www.imageeditor.net/
        http://editor.pixastic.com/
        http://www.phixr.com/
        http://www.picture2life.com/
        http://www.pixlr.com/
        http://pixer.us/
        https://www.photoshop.com/
        http://www.splashup.com/
        http://www.flauntr.com/
        http://www.pizap.com/
        http://www.photofunia.com/

FYI, similar service offered by others:

        http://pixlr.com/
        http://fotoflexer.com/
        http://pixenate.com/
        http://snipshot.com/
        http://www.lunapic.com/editor/
        http://editor.pho.to/
        http://aviary.com/tools/phoenix
        http://www.imageeditor.net/
        http://editor.pixastic.com/
        http://www.phixr.com/
        http://www.picture2life.com/
        http://www.pixlr.com/
        http://pixer.us/
        https://www.photoshop.com/
        http://www.splashup.com/
        http://www.flauntr.com/
        http://www.pizap.com/
        http://www.photofunia.com/

If they do you could try Pixlr