It's very rare that I reach for local software these days.
I’m keen to build up a better local stack for building local programs more easily, running them over the internet without installing and syncing data.
I don’t want to need the cloud to make my computer work.
People also shared Hypercard apps.
I think it is less about client/server and more about how ideas can be shared. Sometimes, data might be shared.
No huge company, no huge PR department, just one hobbyist/professional selling a ugly, rough around the edges tooling to other hobbyist/professionals.
And I had "software only for the home" way before coding with LLMs were a thing and... It's just convenient when it's in a browser. Especially now with technologies like SSE push (where I hardly need any JavaScript anymore).
Also "software for one" can be "software for the home" but also "software for the SME" and the home has Linux PCs, an iOS tablet, an Android tablet, Android phones and the wife is on a Mac Mini.
Also even if it was really "just for me", something has to be said about an app one can access when not at home (which is easy to do when it's a webapp).
> Why does it need a client/server model?
I just use SSE push now: hardly any JavaScript and it works totally fine. Sure it's technically client/server but it's not crazy complicated either.
I've worked on medium-sized desktop Java apps (a few hundreds of thousands of lines of code) that were running on the three usual suspects: Linux, OS X and Windows.
Well... I much prefer to write webapps.
Wife and I have got a SME we run together and we use a Webapp I made to do so (now with the help of LLMs too, but I made the app before LLMs).
Don't get me wrong: I consider JavaScript to be one of the suckiest language ever invented and the amateurism of its ecosystem makes me want to vomit. It's not a love-letter to JavaScript: but browsers are very convenient.