Comment by vanviegen
19 hours ago
You're blaming JavaScript? The language that succeeded at delivering fully sandboxed rich client-side applications better than any other tech? With the worst incidents generally being 'just' various forms of fingerprinting?
Or, if you're thinking server-side JavaScript: would the web have been more secure running PHP and Python?
The language that made it normal to blindly run code that you found lying around on some page? Elsewhere we'd call that a remote code execution exploit. JavaScript just calls it another day at the office.
And it's not fully sandboxed. It betrays its user all the time by abusing unrestricted access to the network, or activating browser functionality that most of us would disable if we could.
I'm not saying it's THE bad decision, but it is the product of a generation of thinkers who were not thinking about threats the way we do now. If we were to go back in time and have the opportunity to do it differently, I think we would take that opportunity.
But we don't actually need a time machine. We can just accept some sunk costs and move forward anyhow.
To be fair, Java applets and the Flash plugin socialized that before Javascript tried to walk us back from the edge just a bit.
And before that, whatever Microsoft "macro" or embedded code variant was popular that week in all those document formats...
Blindly running client side code (within a very carefully designed sandbox) is necessary for the modern web to operate, and people like the modern web.
We aren't going back to a page refresh every time you want to update something any time soon
I would take a page refresh that takes two seconds over waiting half a minute for a page to "hydrate"
Are you sure people like the modern web? It's increasingly used as a weapon against them. I don't know anybody under 20 who likes the modern web. As for the others, I think its more about nostalgia.
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People do? I loathe the modern web.
Give me a https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/ instead.
Perhaps the web was more secure when it wasn't running anything—just serving up static web pages?
Sure. It was also a lot less functional.
Kind of, but in practice not really. Sure, something like a photo editor would never be possible in Web 1.0.
But 99% of web applications are forms and displaying stuff. All JS accomplished is making it look prettier and enhanced tracking.
I mean, Facebook, my bank, Amazon… these can all be created with no client side code. It would be a lot of refreshes, but it can be done.
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