I listened to the lively debate regarding Rich Internet Applications (RIA) on The Java Posse podcast, episode 198, and I really have to agree that it is a really bad name for it. A RIA is no more than a more beefy web application.
Having had my primary focus outside of the web application sphere for a long time I have noticed the hammer and the nail mentality inside the sphere. You know, if the only thing you have is a hammer (web application) everything looks like a nail (application ideas).
I have seen this myself some years back where a company wanted a web application which should show graphs where you would be able to interact with the graph like zooming and dragging and such. Of course, one of the requirements was also that the application should not need any additional software to be installed and this was before the AJAX acronym was publicly known. I saw no way of making a good solution within a browser since what they really wanted was a rich internet application so my recommendation had to be that a desktop application should be deployed.
No deal that time.
It is some sort of perverted idea that every application user interface could be realised in a web browser. I don't really think that is the case and even if it was true, the browser is not the ideal environment for all productivity tools. Imagine having your development IDE in a browser window.
I think you should use the tools that fits the requirements instead of trying to fit the square pieces in the round holes. I am working with rich internet applications today but I Swing my hammer.
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