RealityPrime

^{In-Browser-Window}

or

^{Browser-Embedded}

^{ActiveX (IE + older FF)
Plugin (FF)}

^{A PC app, specially compiled, whose output window and input is tied to the browser page that invokes it.}

^{The page can also invoke some registered app functions and throw some limited app events.}

^{Looks like it’s running "in" a web page.}

^{As fast as any PC app.}

^{Been around for over a decade.}

^{"Flash is just an ActiveX control, so why not my new plugin too?"}

^{Requires "scary" installation.}

^{Has full access, can potentially be abused by 3rd parties.}

^{Flash, Java, Silverlight}

^{These are/were not really part of the browser, but are so common they can safely be assumed to be installed, or within a few clicks of being installed without losing people.}

^{Small download, (once you have Flash/Java/SL) and very little installation.}

^{Sandboxed for safety.}

^{Cross-platform.}

^{Sandboxing means it’s hard to keep/cache persistent data.}

^{Code is still slower than native compiled.}

^{3D graphics are not as fast as a native app or plugin.}

^Javascript

^{Interpreted script which is run right in your browser, including the now-famous AJAX methods.}

^{3D is accomplished via the newish Canvas tags.}

^{No download (except for the scripts and data)}

^{Works like the rest of the web as in "it just works."}

^{Mostly cross-platform, but cross-browser has some issues.}

^{Even more sandboxed,}

^{Slower and limited to current browser features, like 3D canvas, which is not yet a broad subset of 3D rendering.}