There's been talk of
the browser being a dying breed when RIAs come along, and while I agree partially, I still believe there's a place for it in the short-mid term for browsing webpages, and information, as well as for testing out RIAs. I mean, imagine if you had to download a desktop app everytime you wanted to try out a new web app. It may not be in its current form, though.
The guys behind Trillian, the multi-platform instant messaging client, have created a Flash based version of their instant messaging tool, but given it the ability to break free from the browser once its launched, allowing it to act as if it were a desktop app, complete with tray icons. Check out their
blog post, along with the demo video - it's a pretty cool example of the blurring lines between the desktop and the browser.
It works by leveraging Firefox as a platform, installing a Firefox plugin that allows it to break free from the browser. There are some security issues probably, e.g. how to make the plugin onlt allow the Trillian client to 'break free', and not spyware/advertisements, especially because it seems to have pretty deep access into the computer.
It's a demo of things to come though, and really just morphs Firefox into Adobe's Apollo platform, which is pretty cool and should please the open-source fans, plus it'll allow more than just HTML/JS/Flash, unlike Apollo.