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The problem with native apps is they are (mostly) locked behind "stores" run by Big Tech.

• hombre_fatal 1y ago
  And they're opaque. You have to mitm proxy to even see if they're making requests to who knows where. They run with too many privileges. You can't block ads. You can't link to them. Meanwhile, the web runs in a web browser. You have a network bar. You can inspect element. You can inject Javascript. You can run your own code inside people's apps. The former scenario isn't better than the latter scenario just because some people build their website with too many NPM dependencies.
  • 1over137 1y ago
    I take your point, but a lot of that needn't be the case. Native apps can have lesser privileges with sandboxing, you can inject code if your OS doesn't forbid it, etc. A lot of this is just in how many of are native apps are, not how they must be.
    • hombre_fatal 1y ago
      True. But one of the biggest wins of the web is that it's how things are, and it was only a historical fluke of luck that things panned out this way. As it's often said, there's no way the concept of a web browser would be feasible in today's walled garden app store norms. You mean a god app than can run remote, arbitrary code? And it lets you sideload arbitrary extensions that can do things like block ads and mutate apps? The only reason it's allowed is because the web was ubiquitous by the time computing became so highly controlled. So we shouldn't be quick to dismiss it, despite its warts.