3 ms·

> What difference do you see between a browser and an OS? A browser is an OS. They perform the same role. A context to run whatever 3rd party software. This is

> What difference do you see between a browser and an OS? A browser is an OS. They perform the same role. A context to run whatever 3rd party software. This is where everything has gone screwy. A browser should only be rendering and displaying html files. Browsers should be minuscule in size, and /definitely/ not run any 3rd party software.

nordsieck 3y ago
> This is where everything has gone screwy. A browser should only be rendering and displaying html files. Browsers should be minuscule in size, and /definitely/ not run any 3rd party software. You can try to close the door on that stable, but the horse that escaped has died of old age it's happened so long ago.
axlee 3y ago
Says who? This sounds more like preaching than anything else.
oblio 3y ago
Blame the OS vendors (Microsoft has 70% of the blame, Apple 25% and even Linux distro share a 5% amongst themselves). They killed[1] cross platform apps and they made software updates hard, so everyone just flocked to the web. [1] Not through a single blow, death by a million cuts.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  >They killed[1] cross platform apps No they didn't! Extremely lazy devs deciding that they should just be able to deploy javascript and html anywhere and using Electron "killed" native apps. Why would anyone ever invest even 1% more into a native app when you can just hire intern javascript kiddies, pay them terribly, oversee them with one or two expensive javascript bros, and all your users will blame the slowdown on the operating system and Microsoft as they always have?
  - oblio 3y ago
    Native apps cost far more than just 1% over web apps. I'd argue each native version costs about as much as an web app. The real shame was Gtk and Qt not getting the support they deserve.
kristiandupont 3y ago
>This is where everything has gone screwy I, on the other hand, find that "browser as OS" is one of the best things that has happened in recent software history. I can run Photopea anywhere, on any platform that has a decent browser. Absolutely magic!
simiones 3y ago
The web was invented in 1989, became a public project in 1991, and JavaScript support for it appeared in 1995, Java Applets the same year, with Flash and ActiveX following in 1996. So it was a static document model for ~6 years, and an app platform for ~27 years.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  PDFs and work documents also were infected with scripting languages in the 90’s. It was just a weird time.

nordsieck 3y ago

> This is where everything has gone screwy. A browser should only be rendering and displaying html files. Browsers should be minuscule in size, and /definitely/ not run any 3rd party software. You can try to close the door on that stable, but the horse that escaped has died of old age it's happened so long ago.

axlee 3y ago

Says who? This sounds more like preaching than anything else.

oblio 3y ago

Blame the OS vendors (Microsoft has 70% of the blame, Apple 25% and even Linux distro share a 5% amongst themselves). They killed[1] cross platform apps and they made software updates hard, so everyone just flocked to the web. [1] Not through a single blow, death by a million cuts.

mrguyorama 3y ago
>They killed[1] cross platform apps No they didn't! Extremely lazy devs deciding that they should just be able to deploy javascript and html anywhere and using Electron "killed" native apps. Why would anyone ever invest even 1% more into a native app when you can just hire intern javascript kiddies, pay them terribly, oversee them with one or two expensive javascript bros, and all your users will blame the slowdown on the operating system and Microsoft as they always have?
- oblio 3y ago
  Native apps cost far more than just 1% over web apps. I'd argue each native version costs about as much as an web app. The real shame was Gtk and Qt not getting the support they deserve.

kristiandupont 3y ago

>This is where everything has gone screwy I, on the other hand, find that "browser as OS" is one of the best things that has happened in recent software history. I can run Photopea anywhere, on any platform that has a decent browser. Absolutely magic!

simiones 3y ago

The web was invented in 1989, became a public project in 1991, and JavaScript support for it appeared in 1995, Java Applets the same year, with Flash and ActiveX following in 1996. So it was a static document model for ~6 years, and an app platform for ~27 years.

bee_rider 3y ago
PDFs and work documents also were infected with scripting languages in the 90’s. It was just a weird time.