3 ms·
>installing an app locally provides that signal While running, yes. But as soon as we get demons all intuitions are lost
by tambourine_man 8y ago
>installing an app locally provides that signal
While running, yes. But as soon as we get demons all intuitions are lost
- olliej 8y agoYes, but there’s a huge signal that the user wants something to run outside of the context of the current web page. Service workers allow drive by installation semi-persistent malware. Not as bad as actual downloaded software malware, but on the other hand it doesn’t require user action to start. The signal from user downloading and running something is that they no longer associate what the app is doing with the existence of that tab. This step also means that while strictly more powerful the OS can enforce other restrictions to limit damage (as much as possible when users insist on disabling protections). Again, service workers don’t have that signal, asking in a dialog is not useful, and by design they are user hostile - web developers wanted these features to support use cases that aren’t super compelling.