I love it. We're done with the "ZOMG WEB!" thing. You don't have to lay out your GUI's with a markup language designed for typography - The modern VT100. You don't have to keep state with a stateless protocol. Now you get a nice (mostly) standardized interface and you get to build a lighting fast native GUI for your app.
I can't wait to see what people cook up over the next five years. Particularly with the trend towards tablet computers.
Right, all you have to do is choose between a number of incompatible GUI platforms which are not standardized and all of which have an uncertain future, including the possibility of eventually be swallowed up by HTML/CSS/JS whose progress and growth is inexorable due to its openness and ubiquity. Good luck!
I see you're actually eager to make a full leap from 'WEB' to native apps. I don't disagree, but I think REST+DOM/JS will still have its place there. A lightweight alternative to full-blown applications, interactive documents that load in the blink of an eye and transparently integrate with your ecosystem. I guess it's what web was supposed to be in the first place, but with some added zing.
If by 'REST+DOM/JS' you mean "Random Bad, Hodge-Podge Code Filled with Callbacks and pervasive use of global variables", then yes, bad programming will always have a place - for PHP programmers.
Most really awesome apps being written these days, that use HTML, are using the CANVAS tag and doing stuff like building terrain maps of buildings and showing people holding 4.5" smart phones where in the building druglords are. Crazy stuff like that.
Actually I never did web apps. I keep looking at it and just cringing. I'd be alcoholic if I had to suffer web programming, knowing that the pain is self inflicted.
Still I am jealous of the numerical advantage the web gives people. The iphone/ipad ended that though.
I can't wait to see what people cook up over the next five years. Particularly with the trend towards tablet computers.