It’s a bit like with programming languages. If the choice of programming language is not important, you can as well use the best one for the job.

BTW, for similar reasons why I don’t like giving away my blog account data, I even less like the thought that both, my application, and my data, are not under my sole control – like it is with Google Gears & Co. I don’t use unattended auto-updates, especially not with plugins. I usually like to see some release notes first before I update. So I’m still not sure that I’d like “The Cloud”.

But this is getting a bit off topic.

About the cloud, I agree and disagree. Web applications and desktop clients are equally important now, but the entire point of Cloud Computing is to push data AND the functionality of controlling it off user’s computer and onto the cloud. Basically taking the control out of the user’s hand, is giving them a better experience, and giving the service provider easier access to solutions. This is beneficial to software developers too. Imagine no more software pirating, just licenses. Of course I understand this is much later, and desktop client software will get more connected and become web browsers themselves, before they disappear completely. My point was that eventually, people will need all their stuff in their mobile devices, and it doesn’t make sense to have installations and or data in a mobile device. Complete connectivity, where users do not have to worry about anything but access, that is true cloud computing.

Web applications are at the mercy of the current technology, which makes them less ideal than the processing superiority of the desktop software. What happens when this obstacle is gone? What happens when a website isn’t seen as just a respond to a request anymore? A web application even now, shouldn’t be pigeon-holed either. A web application can also be a desktop application. Think of Google’s apps. They are applications that are in complete connectivity with the cloud, but can run offline as well. It’s not enough to have to run “updates”. Everything in the application is retrieved and updated on a need basis, and automatically. Google even understands the power of the desktop now, therefore enter Google Gears. That in my opinion is just a crutch they plan an tossing away when connections are strong enough. (See Google Chrome, and their secret routing device, well not so secret anymore if I’ve heard about it)

Don’t worry about Microsoft, they are always one step behind of Google and Apple.
So they have pretty good companies to copy and emulate. If they kill them with business tactics, they will still have adopted some good practices by when that happens.

And they are all using the same technology as desktop blogging clients anyway: XML-RPC. Qumana never worked for me. I’ve been using BlogDesk, which is very lean, and supports posting to multiple blogs at once (unlike LiveWriter and ScribeFire, both listed in that article).

You may be right about “The Cloud” (Though knowing MS, and their preference for bloat, I suspect I won’t like it.) Anyway, “The Cloud” does not imply that you have NO software on your computer. Even with The Cloud you’ll need at least a web browser, and with FF + ScribeFire, for example, you have a desktop blogging client. “Desktop” blogging clients and The Cloud are not a contradiction. (IMO, the technology of The Cloud could as well enable more sophisticated tools for web access.)

I understand the importance of desktop software, but you also have to take into account the trends of today.
Pretty soon, there will be no desktop clients. Friends like Google, Apple (mobileMe), and Microsoft (live) have all assured us that the “cloud” is the way to the future.
Unless companies or groups like WordPress can challenge those companies for these trends, I’d say they’re probably right.

What I don’t understand is that when WordPress integrated XML-RPC, why not just do this idea too?

Before I decided to go with WordPress, I struggled a lot with myself about taking b2evolution, which has is a native multiblog engine, or drupal, which has a multisite feature. Not across servers though. (I think drupal has some this kind of support to login into several drupal sites simultaneously, but I never got around to investigate it.)

Finally, I went with WordPress, although technically speaking, I’d put WordPress at the lower end of a sophistication scale. It was just the easiest to start with. Low entry barrier, but one also hits its limits early on.

I lay my hopes in desktop blogging clients. At least for posting, they have huge potential. And multiblog posting is a no-issue, with many of them. Do you use one?