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"In a web app world if, for example, Microsoft brings out a new input device (like kinect), nobody will actually be able to develop software for it until the ga
by pgeorgi 13y ago
"In a web app world if, for example, Microsoft brings out a new input device (like kinect), nobody will actually be able to develop software for it until the gatekeepers of the 'web standards' decide to design an API for it."
What stops Microsoft (in this example) to implement kinect support in IE as a new API, propose it as a standard and evolve the interface like every other web API - that is, in parallel to the standardization process?
If it's any good, Google and Mozilla will scramble to implement it to prevent users to defect to IE.
- anon1385 13y agoFirstly they would be pilloried for having a "proprietary" browser and being "anti-standards". More importantly, IE can't run on your Firefox OS phone or your ChromeOS chromebook or your iOS tablet. 'Deflecting' to IE would mean buying entirely new hardware (and in the case of phones, probably a new multi-year contract). That isn't an accident. The best way to ensure your browser remains relevant (i.e. you retain veto power over any new standards) is to create OSs that can only run a single browser. You then have millions of users that are locked into your browser to use as bargaining chips. A world where all user-facing software has to target a single standard gives vast power to the owners of that standard. Very few people seem to be considering this problem. No matter how benevolent you think Google or Mozilla are today, it is madness to place so much trust in them. Their interests do not align with yours, and there are very few checks or balances to the system: end users or independent developers have basically zero say in the web standards process.