my 2c. Pharo is not an IDE. It is a platform.
About whether we should focus on Desktop or Web. My answer: both. Web main purpose was (and i think it will stay like that in a future) to deliver a content to user(s). A desktop is different: it is to provide a working place. There's a third niche, which is developing in recent years: small/embedded devices. No UI, no "browser" you can rely on, just a bare hardware. And Pharo also having something to propose in this direction. These directions is cross-pollinating. We want small, modular core? Ok. perfect match for embedded devices. We want a good FFI? Again, perfect match for OpenGL users. We want non-blocking, scalable I/O? perfect match for Web users. Now it doesn't means that non-blocking I/O is useful only for Web. I think if you take any direction, you will find that it quite useful there as well.
