- Date
- 2025-05-23 09:10
- Category
- software
In the past fifteen to twenty years, the web has turned into an application delivery platform. I'm conflicted about that.
On the one hand, apps like TiddlyWiki or Feather Wiki are ultra-cool, and fulfill an old dream: to have entire minisites in a self-contained file, complete with its own content management system. Browsers had a chance to do that natively and blew it; I still think they should have added support for EPUB at least. It's so much easier than PDF, but PDF is much better known. Another good use of JavaScript is giving people live demos of simple games or apps to try before downloading. Tools like Browserpad have their place too. I keep my browser open all the time anyway.
On the other hand, browser engines are notoriously hard to make now. Better hope that projects like Servo succeed before we're stuck with a monopoly again. We also need many more sites that work in alternative / text based browsers like Netsurf or Lynx. But sites want to be apps now too, and I don't mean the "download our app" syndrome: just look at Discourse. Which ironically doesn't even work on mobile devices. Welcome to 2025.
At least wikis made with Siteleteer can be read in Lynx once created; but you still need Firefox or something to edit them. Well, technically you can do it in a text editor, but then you might as well make a plain web page, or at most use a static site generator.
Might as well make the web a hypertext document network again. But then it would mean doing everything else as native apps, like in the old days. And you're going to say native apps are hard. But I keep open clients for Matrix, XMPP and IRC. Together, they still use less RAM than a single browser tab running Discourse... which leaks memory. How much money do you have for your next PC upgrade?
Wish we could find some sort of balance again. But in the end, if you want to enjoy the benefits of computers, you can't avoid knowing how they're programmed and operated. That was a promise made in bad faith by people who wanted to control your life and get rich at your expense.