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Comment by Brian_K_White

16 hours ago

People are starting to ship even local apps only in the form of some html & js that only works on Chrome because only Chrome has webusb.

Whether we like the idea of the browser having access to usb or not, I at least like even less the idea of being forced to install and use Chrome for the same reasons as the bad old days of being forced to use IE.

I still want to reinvent the web with a hypertext document reader that doesn't include the kitchen sink. I suppose with LLMs these days this is actually an achievable prototype.

  • Conversely, a web app platform that includes all the primitives that are needed to build a decent web app (as opposed to bring your own everything/building castles from grains of sand model) would be nice. It doesn't necessarily have to be a browser, though.

    • We had those (Flash, Shockwave, Java Applets, etc.), the browser won.

      Nobody is going to win over browsers with an opinionated batteries included application framework.

      1 reply →

  • There are plenty of crippled web browsers out there. Heck, on iOS, it's the default.