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I disagree with your idea of running native code on the client as a replacement for the web in the context of laptops and desktops. The app store works because

I disagree with your idea of running native code on the client as a replacement for the web in the context of laptops and desktops. The app store works because apple curates it. In the Android marketplace, many applications are viruses (http://www.androidguys.com/2012/12/14/lookout-18-million-infected-android-devices-by-end-of-2013/ http://www.androidguys.com/2012/12/14/lookout-18-million-inf...). If more than 9-10% of laptops and desktops had access to the app store, I would imagine that malware would be a more significant problem. Therefore, while I agree with the rest of your complaints, I disagree with the idea of making the web run using native code. I think that an interpreted environment will become good enough to do everything a user wants as computers get faster. In fact, if we can assume the standard user watches Youtube videos and sends and receives images and text through Facebook/Instagram/..., then interpreted code is fast enough today. On the web, where the user must constantly accept and run code from unknown and untrusted developers, code must run in a sandbox to minimize risk of unwanted access to the user's computer. Side Note: I also just really, really hate app stores. I find them to be much more restrictive than just throwing a website up and allowing anyone to access it. The idea of having to pay someone to allow users to be able to use my stuff is way too restrictive to me.

hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
Strictly speaking, native clients have nothing to do with app stores or speed. I just mentioned mobile apps and some software available in the Mac App Store as success cases because native clients backed by HTTP APIs seem to be a much saner development environment than shoehorning an app to run inside a browser, which is limited to one language, crappy APIs, broken interaction models and lack of standards. > On the web, where the user must constantly accept and run code from unknown and untrusted developers, code must run in a sandbox to minimize risk of unwanted access to the user's computer. First, sandboxed environments are not limited to browsers (e.g., OS X 10.8). Second, browsers are often the attack vector, because they were never meant to run applications, and have broken security models (e.g., no application signing). So you end up in a sandboxed environment with terribly limited APIs in the name of security, and on the other hand have hard to trace security holes, like XSS.
- pjmlp 14y ago
  This is what I, after years of web development consulting, now advocate. The browser should be left for documents. The only way to provide the best user experience and operating system integration is via native applications, regardless of the environment, which communicate via network protocols.

hcarvalhoalves 14y ago

Strictly speaking, native clients have nothing to do with app stores or speed. I just mentioned mobile apps and some software available in the Mac App Store as success cases because native clients backed by HTTP APIs seem to be a much saner development environment than shoehorning an app to run inside a browser, which is limited to one language, crappy APIs, broken interaction models and lack of standards. > On the web, where the user must constantly accept and run code from unknown and untrusted developers, code must run in a sandbox to minimize risk of unwanted access to the user's computer. First, sandboxed environments are not limited to browsers (e.g., OS X 10.8). Second, browsers are often the attack vector, because they were never meant to run applications, and have broken security models (e.g., no application signing). So you end up in a sandboxed environment with terribly limited APIs in the name of security, and on the other hand have hard to trace security holes, like XSS.

pjmlp 14y ago
This is what I, after years of web development consulting, now advocate. The browser should be left for documents. The only way to provide the best user experience and operating system integration is via native applications, regardless of the environment, which communicate via network protocols.