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With regard to the first category Web Apps, webmail, online databases, dictionaries, maps, media-sharing and market places have been among the first web based services and not depending of the operating system.

"Web 2.0" is now offering innumerable applications in all categories, and "Cloud Computing" is also focused on interactive social networking.  Web applications typically are accessed through any web browser program, whereas e.g. "Prism" is a site specific embedded browser hosting and running web apps without displaying the usual browser user interface.

However, the use of Web Apps requires full internet access and should always be used with care, in particular with regard to the sharing of personal data.  Usually, registration is required to access the services.  But the clear advantage is that they do not occupy much disk space and memory.


Portable Apps on the other hand are native self-contained programs that can be installed on removable devices (such as USB sticks or Memory Cards) or simply run independently after extraction into any folder of choice.  Such portable software programs are able to store their configuration and personalized data within its own directory.  That makes it is possible to move and copy them at any time, and stored on removable devices, they can be carried with and used on different computers.

Depending on the OS, there are different versions and formats available - usually as Open Source Freeware.  Since they do not need to be installed on the hard disk and into the system,  they are not so likely to affect the stability and performance of the system.


In addition, more and more "interdisciplinary" solutions are offered, in particular comfortable for users running more than one OS and without emulation in a Virtual Machine.  To give an example, MS Windows OS Portable Apps executables can be made running under Linux, Mac OS, etc. with the help of  a compatibility layer like "WineHQ" and/or of CrossOver, a Windows-to-Linux desktop productivity tool.  Similarly, it is possible to run Linux applications in Windows with the help of an embedded Linux system or e.g. by providing the bridge for programs written in Python programming language.

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