Web based applications V/s Desktop Applications

Web based interface is rapidly replacing the traditional desktop based or terminal based applications. The growth of web based applications denotes the trend in the market and latets users. The new users are more comfortable using the web based system as compared to the old traditional desktop applications. Integration to browser has made user’s life a lot simpler, but has it made application programmer’s life simpler? well you will have joint yes and no votes here. Some people would agree to this and some will not. However the truth remains unchanged that the web applications have taken charge or previous single or multi user desktop based applications. How long they gonna travel ? that’s a big questions. I came across one good article about web application development while trying to explore this topic. These guys also seem to advocate the web bases applications along with the pro’s and corn’s for using and developing them. However to what extent they succeed is topic for debate and i am still not clear what approach to take for traditional business models ? Because you have to think in terms of Security first then Accessibility,  HTML/CSS validation, Performance, Load, Stress, Usability, Cross-browser and other factors.

It’s fact that webbased applications have same process for development, testing, integration as other especially desktop based appliations but since just the client differs the application developers have a freedom in developing the applications. But can we really call that a freedom ? as compared to visual C++ and Delphi based applications ?