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An OS based on IPFS would give you the best of both worlds. AFAIK browsers are popular because they load apps quickly and without an install step. While native

by jkroso 10y ago

An OS based on IPFS would give you the best of both worlds. AFAIK browsers are popular because they load apps quickly and without an install step. While native apps let you choose your stack. An OS based on IPFS would load big apps quickly thanks to caching, the install step would go away because there is no difference between remote files and local ones and its still an OS so the app can be written in C or any other language built on top of it.

carussell 10y ago
Zero-install is half of the reason why browsers are popular. The other half is that the Web puts the users in far more control over the content in their viewport than anything else that has been widely deployed except for probably Microsoft Excel. If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some mythical "everyman", you are wrong. Because those normal folk are exactly why Excel even gets a mention.
- lj3 10y ago
  That doesn't explain the popularity of mobile apps among the "everyman". They're not very customizable, but they're considerably more popular than either the regular or mobile web. > If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some mythical "everyman", you are wrong. Evidence? Sales numbers tend to prove the opposite. It's the whole reason the apple ecosystem makes as much money as it does: it just works and it looks good doing it. Most people don't enjoy having to spend any time on getting anything to work or customizing anything to their liking. They just want it to do what it's supposed to do then go back to whatever it is they find more important. Now, could a zero-install network of apps kill the browser? I'm not so sure. Developing native apps is a royal pain in the ass right now. But, if something like QML were to get a lot better and easier to use, it could take a dent out of the single page application market.
  - jkroso 10y ago
    I think even electron apps would be better than web apps with an IPFS OS to make it load quickly
  - carussell 10y ago
    > Most people don't enjoy having to spend any time on getting anything to work or customizing anything to their liking. Well that's great, because those aren't words I ever said. The first person to start talking about customizing things is you. I'm not going to be nudged into mounting a defense for an argument that I never tried to make.

by jkroso 10y ago

carussell 10y ago

Zero-install is half of the reason why browsers are popular. The other half is that the Web puts the users in far more control over the content in their viewport than anything else that has been widely deployed except for probably Microsoft Excel. If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some mythical "everyman", you are wrong. Because those normal folk are exactly why Excel even gets a mention.

lj3 10y ago
That doesn't explain the popularity of mobile apps among the "everyman". They're not very customizable, but they're considerably more popular than either the regular or mobile web. > If your first thought is that desire for control is a niche thing, an instance of power users projecting their biases onto the rest of the world and not a concern for some mythical "everyman", you are wrong. Evidence? Sales numbers tend to prove the opposite. It's the whole reason the apple ecosystem makes as much money as it does: it just works and it looks good doing it. Most people don't enjoy having to spend any time on getting anything to work or customizing anything to their liking. They just want it to do what it's supposed to do then go back to whatever it is they find more important. Now, could a zero-install network of apps kill the browser? I'm not so sure. Developing native apps is a royal pain in the ass right now. But, if something like QML were to get a lot better and easier to use, it could take a dent out of the single page application market.
- jkroso 10y ago
  I think even electron apps would be better than web apps with an IPFS OS to make it load quickly
- carussell 10y ago
  > Most people don't enjoy having to spend any time on getting anything to work or customizing anything to their liking. Well that's great, because those aren't words I ever said. The first person to start talking about customizing things is you. I'm not going to be nudged into mounting a defense for an argument that I never tried to make.