As FMI has instituted this concurrent licensing scheme for "free" clients like Go and Web, it puzzles me that they won't now make a "Go for Desktop".  (or, a networked runtime).  A networked runtime would still require FMS to access the data, so license would be paid on the server end, and I'm guessing that desktop and mobile clients put a lot less load on the server compared to WebDirect.

This is not a function that FileMaker would like to include. The Server came into existence in order to plug a hole in loss revenue by the standalone being able to be shared prior to v4.

you can use runtime solutions to connect to web services that I know.  The only reason I would hate to do this on large scales is the distribution of files.  I would rather have it browser driven and not have to re distribute every time a solution needed a change. Just a nightmare to keep everyone updated that way. 

but if the runtime was like filemaker Go, you wouldn't need to distribute files.  just a launcher file or no file at all.  The point is if you stripped the "Go for Desktop" down to the same feature set as in iOS (no database creation or design, etc.) then you wouldn't really lose any revenue, since they'd then only be usable standalone or with a filemaker server concurrent use license.

WebDirect is going to be your thin client. This is v1. As the feature set grows, I expect WebDirect to come closer and closer to desktop client performance. So that would be your "Go for desktop".