Michael Robertson (of MP3.com, Linspire, SIPPhone etc) is launching (or has launched) a new competitor to Microsoft Word – ajaxWrite , a web based word processor. ajaxWrite is a powerful wordprocessor that can read/write word documents (you can save in pdf too).
There isn't any registration or other bells and whistles. You goto the website and click on the ajaxWrite button and there loads ajaxWrite in a new window. The interface is really nice and useful. If you need to do a quick edit, or read some documents ajaxWrite is perfect for the job. Currently ajaxWrite is supported only in Firefox.
Whats more, Michael Robertson plans to launch more software titles in the AJAX platform. From his article:
But ajaxWrite is just the start. We have a library of applications we have been working on to replace most of the standard PC software titles. Every week we will launch a new sophisticated program on Wednesday at 12:00 PST on ajaxlaunch.com. These programs will push the boundaries of what people believe is possible today with web-delivered software. These programs look and operate much like their traditional software cousins, but are cross-platform, loaded dynamically, and are available to users at no charge. I'm convinced if you try a few of these products you will understand how the software business will fundamentally change.
You can read more about this in Michael Robertson's blog/article
Currently, the ajaxWrite is really slow and takes ages to load because this article has been dugg and slashdotted.
Late Edit: According to Om Malik's Blog it seems ajaxWrite is not an ajax application. Ajax Russell explains on his blog. A direct quote, from Russell's blog:
This thing is appropriating the necessarily amorphous terminology of
“Ajax” for an implementation that is directly at odds with why Ajax is
an important technology. A XUL app being billed as “Ajax” is just as
laughable as a Flex or XAML app suddenly growing the same moniker… So
I’m calling on Michael Robertson to do the right thing and rename this
product. A quick check shows “xulwrite.com” as still being available.
Upon closer look, ajaxWrite is indeed written in XUL. ajaxWrite is supported in Firefox only for now which isn't surprising in hindsight because IE6 doesn't have support for XUL and IE7 hasn't announced any plans for it so far.
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