Boxed software is so 2006. In fact, paying for software at all is becoming passé. You can get everything from e-mail to office and photo-editing applications online without downloading a thing. And a lot of what’s out there is free. While Ajax programming techniques and ubiquitous broadband have made some of these Web apps remarkably responsive and rich in features, none yet rival their offline progenitors in features and speed. On the other hand, when it comes to collaboration, very few desktop programs can approach the flexibility and ease of the better Web-based alternatives. We took a look at three of the most popular types of applications to see if Webware is really ready for prime time.