Steve DeKorte on AJAX as (as Bucky Fuller put it) “yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings.”
There’s something to this. If AJAX-ish apps threaten Windows, it is in some ways because they are a “worse is better” (see also) solution, as Windows always has been.
Personal note: How am I supposed to get any work done when Topher instant messages me with javascript questions? It’s super fun figuring out the relatively simple javascript challenges he poses me. Javascript is actually a super fun language; you can be incredibly elegant in it (despite a few inelegances in its syntax and the like). Every time I try something in Javascript I enjoy the language more any more. Anybody want to hire me to do nothing but program fun things in Javascript all day?
Maybe I just enjoy it because browsers have evolved to the point that most of the really painful incompatibilities and ugly workarounds are things of the past.