"why didn't some universal client based on them take off instead of the web?" Because you had several companies all fighting to have their desktop platform be

"why didn't some universal client based on them take off instead of the web?" Because you had several companies all fighting to have their desktop platform be the standard. The web slipped in the back door because nobody felt threatened by a hyperlink document publishing system. As such, it was the only platform that was available everywhere. Worse is better. Interestingly, the web is starting to adopt the old desktop model. If you look at many of the emerging frameworks for web development (talking client side here), they all seem to be loosely based on the work of OpenStep. It is actually a really great question posed by dman. If the web is suitable for applications, the browser chrome should be one of those such applications.