Today I was surprised by Loveley Charts, a new application based on Flex that can replace Visio in the near future. Last weekend I already read about Buzzword, a Word replacement, and SlideRocket, a Powerpoint replacement. So, there’s only an Excel replacement missing 
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Yes, the AJAX guys already deliver a lot of replacements to get your office online. But, tweaks in usage are still a point of discussion.
AJAX is limited to deliver real desktop feeling inside a browser. It is a complex beast, especially when embedded in Java contexts. So, it is already clear, that we will get into big maintenance issues the next years.
Flex delivers everything to get a real desktop feeling, delivers the full range of multimedia support, has still the coolest video codec, and integrates itself into the browser landscape like a charme. The development model behind it is easier to understand and use, although the presentation can be more complex than with AJAX today. A big advantage for your time-to-market.
Additionally, Adobe’s AIR allows to use an application inside the desktop in a platform-independent manner. It will become a real alternative to RCP we get e.g. with Eclipse today.
There are other technologies on the horizon, like BlazeDS, that allows to use standardized communication channels into J2EE backends.
And best of all, all technologies are OpenSource.
Further reading:
