I've written Atom Publishing Protocol servers that use it. It's not badly-suited for non-browser tasks (although yes, SSL and Basic is much simpler - if you don

I've written Atom Publishing Protocol servers that use it. It's not badly-suited for non-browser tasks (although yes, SSL and Basic is much simpler - if you don't mind paying for the certificate). It's unusual, but it's pretty unusual to use it (or Basic) for web browsers these days, too.