Fluid - Bring Web Apps to Your Mac Desktop

Over the past couple of years, I've moved much of my life online. Whereas, in the past, I used a standalone email client, such as Thunderbird, I now almost exclusively use Gmail. Similarly, I used to use programs such as NetNewsWire to read my bloglist, but now have moved to online solutions such as Bloglines.

Why?

Mainly, it's been a function of my computing habits. I use both Mac OSX and Linux, and also have a need to access this information, not only on my own computer, but occasionally on other computers. If I had all my eggs in the same basket, so to speak, by having all that information stored with a single program on a single computer, I wouldn't be able to be as efficient.

But the fact of the matter is, I like desktop applications more than I like using web-based interfaces. I'd much prefer to use a program like NetNewsWire than Google Reader or Bloglines. I'd much prefer to use Apple's email application, or Thunderbird, instead of using Gmail or my Internet provider's webmail.

I like the single-mindedness of a desktop application much more than I like the flexibility of a web interface. I like opening up an email client and knowing that until I close it, I'm only going to be checking my email. I find myself (my own fault, I admit), getting distracted when I check my email in my web browser. There's that link to ESPN just begging to be clicked, or the link to TV listings. All kinds of stuff just ready to take me away from answering important emails. With desktop applications, that's much less of a distraction.

Still, I need the ability to be able to check my email (and blogs) no matter where I am, and need for that information to be synchronized. But I still would prefer to do all this inside a desktop application.

Which is why I'm happy that a program for Mac, called Fluid, exists. Fluid, a free program heavily influenced by Mozilla's Prism, is an application that allows Mac users to create a desktop application out of a website.

This is just what I've been looking for, and it couldn't be easier to use.