AjaxLaunch aims to revolutionize software weekly

Posted Apr 3rd 2006 7:08AM by Marshall Kirkpatrick
Filed under: AJAX

Michael Robertson, chairman of Linux desktop company Linspire and co instigator of GizmoProject, has begun an incredible new experiment called AJAXlaunch. He and his co conspirators are launching a new AJAX fueled web service every week. His first two launches have been:

AjaxWrite, a very smooth web based word processor that opens and saves documents in Microsoft .doc format. I really like it. As one observer has noted, it's a shame that Open Document Format isn't supported, but maybe someday it will be. Six days after launch, more that a half million documents have been created using the system.
Now there's AjaxSketch, a drawing program.

What's next? We'll find out this Wednesday. Robertson says this project is intended, basically, to help bridge the digital divide. Free software, instantly available. Sounds like a very cool use of AJAX and the software as a service paradigm.

Reader Comments

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1. Originally I was also very enthusiastic, until I discovered that the only option to save one's work is to the local harddisk. That's a disappointment, the whole point in moving to Web Apps should be to be able to access our work anywhere - that means online.

Posted at 11:20AM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Zoli Erdos

2. While the fast development times are admirable, I can't help feeling that they're spreading themselves too thinly here. Yes, they've rolled out 2 apps in 2 weeks, but both AjaxWrite and AjaxSketch are lacking when it comes to design, usability and competitive advantage. What's more, the lack of web-based storage and collaboration makes them less useful. I don't know what the planned business model is, but it seems unlikely that anyone would want to acquire an entire suite of web applications - highly specialized services are more attractive as acquisition targets.

Posted at 2:15PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Pete Cashmore

3. I think that .odt is supported. When I went to the site the second 'save as' option is Open Office odt.

Posted at 3:41PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by jeremy

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