I've seen the same cycle happen repeatedly in tech (there are many cycles, but this is one of them): systems are centralised on a server, then the client gets m

I've seen the same cycle happen repeatedly in tech (there are many cycles, but this is one of them): systems are centralised on a server, then the client gets more powerful and features of the system are pushed to the client. This gets too much and the client slows down, so the features are centralised to a server again. I can easily see a world where Chrome/ium becomes too bloated to work well, and a "new web" of thin, light, browsers with drastically reduced features but increased speed appears. They'll work with "fat web" servers but throw away half the features (so we'll end up designing two versions of each website). Eventually most of the functionality of the old "fat web" will migrate across - obeying the 90/10 rule (the 10% of features that provide 90% of the value). With 90% of the value, plus increased speed, everyone will move to "thin web" browsers. Chrome/ium will be left where ActiveX is now - some non-bleeding-edge organisations will use it because it has features that didn't make it to the "thin web" and replacing it is a pain, but it's obsolete and no-one really uses it.