Why the Future is Local: Speed, Ownership, and Privacy Beyond the Cloud
Why the future is local app
We are tired of software that demands an internet connection just to open a file. Local-first apps offer instant speed, true data ownership, and built-in privacy by keeping your work on your device. With modern hardware like Apple's Neural Engine and tools like Ollama, we no longer need server farms for AI. The cloud is a detour; the future belongs to tools that actually respect your time and belong to you.
The safest server is the one you never had to trust.
- euroderf
This really matters in map apps when you're on the road. Apple Maps is all very nice with transit planning but without a solid net connection it lies there mutely. Organic Maps (and others) that use downloaded OSM data work well with nothing more than GPS. You can get a transit plan (trains & trams & buses, and the transfers among them) without up-to-the-minute arrival info.
- smahs
There was a time when local apps written in binary compiled languages were notably faster to run, but notoriously difficult to write and scale across platforms. Both of these have improved but the JS/CSS run times used for local web apps (V8/Blink and JSCore/Webkit) are now fast enough for well written code to not notice any difference for many use cases. I think soon most SaaS apps without much of a deep tech moat (not easy to replicate) will be labelled as rip-off or anti-patterns.
- hexasquid
I think some people who grew up with web apps didn't know local native apps preceded them.
- springtimesun
This is true for me, but I wonder if it’s true for most. An alternative framing is not that apps moved to the cloud because they were faster or more convenient but that apps moved to the cloud because they became “free” by you paying with your attention or data. It’s worth reframing the hypothesis to “The future is (paid) local app” and see if you still think it holds.
- cryptos
This article looks a bit superficial to me. The cloud has definitely advantages, like having the same data on all devices and it provides some kind of backup. The mentioned downsides could be adressed by better software archticture or e2e encryption.