[powersnail]

I can think of so many pieces of software that does that: having a local state, having a remote state, and keeping them synchronized whenever internet is available. It's how email apps work. That's how all cloud drives work, and Dropbox is more than a decade old at this point. It's how notes apps work. Etc. etc.

Really can't see how this can be regarded as a recent idea.

[globular-toast]

I'm someone who has used and continues to use desktop applications like that. I'm old enough to know what "work offline" and an email "outbox" is. Those are not the same things.

The always-online apps bring a lot that is not possible with such software, even simple stuff like editing the same file at the same time. Try that with tools like Dropbox and you'll get conflicts that you need to resolve. It's totally possible to get offline software if you either give up on many features or accept complicated conflict resolution etc. The basic options are either immutability, like email, or conflict resolution, like git. This is about not making those sacrifices.

"Local first" is a misnomer and that misnomer does probably reflect the different experience of youngsters, but if you can get past that there is something new here that is interesting and challenging.

[eviks]

Just try to do simultaneous edits offline in all those "Etc. etc.", see it automatically fail, then the obvious recency might become apparent