Previously on RobCottingham.ca, we looked at a very cool list of web applications that can completely replace your desktop applications (with a very few exceptions).

The list’s author, Ismael Ghalimi, was kind enough to respond to my key concern – what about when you aren’t connected? His answer:

When are you really offline beside on a plane?

From this post:

Office 2.0 does not work when you are offline
This bug has been extensively discussed on IT|Redux over time, and the best answer I found was suggested by my friend Assaf: most office users are sitting at their desk and connected to the Internet when they happen to be using their office productivity suite. In other words, this problem does not really exist for the majority of users. And for people on the go such as you and me, it’s likely that we’ve figured out ways to remain connected most of the time when we need to. Next!

And beside, I carry a laptop with a WAN modem.

I don’t think it’s a real issue.

Having had more than my share of bitter frustration trying to convince my Rogers cell phone to act as a Bluetooth modem for my iBook, I’m still not completely won over. But Ismael has me thinking about it.

What do you think? Will they have to pry your desktop apps from your cold, offline hands, or are you ready to make the leap to having Firefox as the only application you need?