On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 8:54 PM, Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> wrote:
>     The underlying premise is that there are no "desktop" apps
>     available on this imagined system, just web apps and browser
>     plugins.

Is this a meaningful distinction?  I mean, on a system where the
browser is the main "shell," and the browser makes sufficiently
powerful mechanisms available, isn't a web app / browser plugin an
"app" as far as the user can tell?

Yes, the plugin/extension is an app as far as the user is concerned and the distinction is mainly relevant to shape the discussion as this forum has been historically concerned with Emacs as a traditional desktop application.  Emacs as an embeddable piece of code is interesting to my goal and is something I need to understand better.  It could be part of the solution I am looking for.
 
> That IS a disaster, in terms of users' freedom.  It pushes users
> into total dependence on servers.

What if it's their server ...?

Miles, nice to see you "get it".

-pmr