SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Software developer Drew DeVault has written a post at his blog about the reckless, infinite scope of today's web browsers. His conclusion is that, given decades of feature creep, it is now impossible to build a new web browser due to the obscene complexity of the web.
I conclude that it is impossible to build a new web browser. The complexity of the web is obscene. The creation of a new web browser would be comparable in effort to the Apollo program or the Manhattan project.
It is impossible to:
- Implement the web correctly
- Implement the web securely
- Implement the web at all
Starting a bespoke browser engine with the intention of competing with Google or Mozilla is a fool's errand. The last serious attempt to make a new browser, Servo, has become one part incubator for Firefox refactoring, one part playground for bored Mozilla engineers to mess with technology no one wants, and zero parts viable modern web browser. But WebVR is cool, right? Right?
The consequences of this are obvious. Browsers are the most expensive piece of software a typical consumer computer runs. They're infamous for using all of your RAM, pinning CPU and I/O, draining your battery, etc. Web browsers are responsible for more than 8,000 CVEs.3
The browser duopoly of Firefox and Chrome/Chromium has clearly harmed the World-Wide Web. However, a closer look at the membership of the W3C committes also reveals representation by classic villains which, perhaps coincidentally, showed up around the time the problems noted by Drew began to grow.
Previously:
An Open Letter to Web Developers (2020)
Google Now Bans Some Linux Web Browsers from their Services (2019)
HTML is the Web (2019)
The Future of Browsers (2019)
One Year Since the W3C Sold Out the Web with EME (2018)
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 26 2020, @02:14PM
That is one way to implement a desktop application.
At present, web applications are superior because they are:
1. zero maintenance
but also . . .
2. zero install
The maintenance, updates, backups all happen at the server. To the end user, it all just works.
Plus entire classes of support problems simply disappear. "Jane can't print!" Never had that problem in over a decade now. The web app previews, and then downloads a PDF. Even forms! (eg, checks, W2s, etc) Your desktop app doesn't need to support printing. The user prints the PDF using their favorite PDF viewer. If your PDF is crafted properly, all the boxes on forms line up on the paper, on EVERY printer. Regardless of margin settings.
My employer originally offered the application I work on in a "customer self hosted" version where the customer could install the server on their own server. And that was a turnkey (Windows) setup.exe. Ultimately very few of those sold. Everyone almost universally wanted us to host it. Like it or not. That is the reality. Despite that they pay more for us to host it. (And the app is multi-tenant. One app instance services all customers. Each customer has separate database.)
If web browsers suitable for running applications were to disappear, I would be looking at a way to implement a universal desktop client. And maybe a way to implement a tablet client on Android/iOS. And chromebooks.
Because web applications from giant corporations are so many and so prevalent (yet generally invisible in society) I expect there would be some kind of industry effort to come up with an open replacement. Probably forking and simplifying current browser or browsers.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.