zlacker

I don't think Google has handled Android particularly well, but you have to be on some 1990s Netscape kool-aid to think that the web is or should be "the primary way for users to experience computing". Computing is just one kind of online service, and despite decades of effort to attempt to force-fit all applications into a browser, sometimes just a damn program that runs natively on the CPU is a much better fit for the task. Computing through the use of such programs is not a bad thing. Providing a central distribution point for such programs is not a bad thing—Linux distros do it all the time. Some of the fuckery-duckery Google has tried to pull with Android should be criticized, but it's not as cut and dry as "the web is open, everything else is proprietary vendor lock".

>>bitwiz+(OP)
> is a much better fit for the task

Such as?

> Providing a central distribution point for such programs is not a bad thing—Linux distros do it all the time.

It is a bad thing if it is

A) the only source of distribution

B) controlled only by the software vendor providing the OS

>>bitwiz+(OP)
> despite decades of effort to attempt to force-fit all applications into a browser, sometimes just a damn program that runs natively on the CPU is a much better fit for the task

WebAssembly will run natively if ECMAScript is holding you back.

While it's still on a VM, so is Java, and that's the only mainstream game in town for "native" Android apps.

It'd be exciting to see what the web could be if Apple didn't spend decades dragging their heels implementing standards for progressive web apps (PWAs) because they know it'll cut into their app store gravy train.

>>bitwiz+(OP)
I miss the native apps + Internet protocols of the 1990's, even though Web pays most of the bills, it should have stayed as an hypermedia documents platform.

>>bitwiz+(OP)
Most applications are forms and slow moving visualizations. Consider banking - banking is very complicated. It's just forms and slow moving visualizations. It can, and should, be on the web.

Also, most native apps are just web views anyway.

>>array_+3S1
Banking is one kind of app where additional security constraints make a mobile app experience more convenient than a web app. Yes, you can do security stuff in a web app, no it isn't as seemless or nice as a mobile app. Everything else, sure, but anything that requires higher stakes authentication (beyond just buying things) I'm ok with it being a mobile app.

>>seanmc+hS1
These additional security constraints come at the cost of remote attestation. There is a steep, steep price for this - you are trading your freedom in exchange for a very small convenience.