The local software, the local hardware, are as important to my online experience as the network is.

Put it this way - from a resource standpoint, its back to the magic triangle of communications, processing and storage (hat tip to Von Neumann). While bandwidth is not infinite, there will always be a requirement for offline or throttled online access, which means that online desktops can only exist for a permanently connected minority. (And while I know these are in the majority when it comes to computers, I’m thinking just as much about the evolution of mobile devices). There may be workarounds such as caching, data synchronisation etc but these are imperfect answers.

Meanwhile, we have the “network not the application”. Again this is back to the magic triangle, but in a different way - we have standalone apps, OS etc because historically, communications were not available, and these provide the legacy environment that may be functionally rich but is clearly cumbersome.

Just imagine what things might have been like if the network had come first, and computers followed? For duffers like me, we don’t have to imagine as this is exactly the evolution we’ve seen since the arrival of the code-enabled Web browser. Applications have been slow to come, but they are coming and in a very different way to the big-block, computer centric alternatives. The adoption of AJAX was probably the key moment, though others will be able to pinpoint it better than I can. Sure, the apps of today are clunky from a usability perspective but (to your point about Facebook and Twitter) they are clearly delivering. Meanwhile, we now have component based application frameworks and scripting based interfaces, which is exactly the prediction made for the future of applications in general.

So, yeah, absolutely to your main premise. Do I need an online desktop to take advantage of it all? Dunno, but there’s a lot of innovation to happen yet so I’ll keep out of the jury for now.