HN

Comments (116)

• Kuyawa
  It is, and I'll tell you my anecdote...I am developing a game and right now got iOS, macOS, Android, web responsive, Rust for Linux and Rust for Windows versions ready. Six different source folders for the same game. It is exhausting even with the help of modern toolsIf we could use just one tech stack providing native parity without drawbacks for all of them that would be the final achievement in software development, but I still think we are decades away from that
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  simonw
  I like this statement:> The web browser is very, very, very powerful software for applications, and the cost of accessing that power is going down seemingly every day.It's wild how much easier it is to build things that harness web technology these days. I'm building features on top of three.js and offline storage and SSE and WebAudio and WebAssembly multiple times per week these days. I used to tinker with some of those maybe once or twice a year.
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  the__alchemist
  For anyone having a hard time following the comments or mentality: Someone explained in a HN comment a few weeks ago in a comment which has helped clarify in my mind: Web (And especially SAAS) developers make up a large portion of HN users. They use and love frontend frameworks, Node, NPM, and using web tech for many tasks, as a first line of tools.
• galaxyLogic
  WEb-tech is basically user-interface tech. Its super-power is that you can commit your GUI to be on the web, while the servers can be implemented with anything. The web-gui must have the most users world-wide, largely because all you need to install isss a wweb-browser and you get access to unlimited applications.Any application can have a web-GUI, so why not have it, and they do, because that allows more people to use the app, with the standard conventions. Once you learn the basic functionalities of the browser (like back-button etc.) you can benefit from that knowledge with any app.
• utopiah
  FWIW with WebXR it's not "just" 2D or 3D with WebGL, no it is immersive content (i.e VR or AR) on ALL platforms, including the very latest Steam Frame.
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  palata
  I know it tends to be an unpopular opinion, but to me the Web is too much, really.Many people (me included) like to complain about how systemd is trying to overtake everything, but browsers are a lot worse than that. Even if I can realistically choose my OS today, I have to run most apps in a browser. And the browser landscape is not that nice in terms of freedom: Google controls it through Chromium, Apple manages to force their users to use Webkit, and Firefox... is marginal.More than that: I can realistically assemble my own OS, that is actually feasible. The one tricky component that I will need to integrate, though, is the browser. And the browser landscape, again, is totally controlled by BigTech.Pushing for webapps is pushing to lock us into Chromium, controlled by Google. I don't see what's great in shipping a copy of Chromium embedded in a webapp and calling that a "desktop app".I want control and diversity. The Web is far from there, and for some reason people love that.
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  galaxyLogic
  Web-tech is basically user-interface tech. Its super-power is that you can commit your GUI to be on the web, while the servers can be implemented with anything. The web-gui must have the most users world-wide, largely because all you need to install isss a wweb-browser and you get access to unlimited applications.Any application can have a web-GUI, so why not have it, and they do, because that allows more people to use the app, with the standard conventions. Once you learn the basic functionalities of the browser (like back-button etc.) you can benefit from that knowledge with any app.This starts to look like the good old OSI-model thinking. GUI is one layer, and like other layers it can be standardised.
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  JoshTriplett
  I run roughly six applications regularly:- One browser window (with tabs)- One terminal window (with tabs)- Signal (not a web app, for good reason, though frankly I'd be thrilled if it lived in a browser tab anyway as an app being served to localhost)- The occasional PDF viewer for PDFs I'm working on (anything loaded from the web gets viewed in the in-browser PDF viewer, but when I'm creating presentations or papers or similar, I have a terminal and a PDF viewer both half-maximized)- Video player for local videos (mpv)- Music player for local music (quodlibet)
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  palata
  > the multiplayer-over-audio thing is a first for an RTS as far as I can tellBecause it's fun, but that's all it is. I had a class at university decades ago where the goal was to transmit data between two computers over audio (and the sound was unpleasant). It's not a novel idea, it's just not something that should be done other than for learning or fun.
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  rsync
  The web, circa 1998 is more than enough.Most of the problems we have with online security, privacy, tracking, etc., are the result of the rapid, irresponsible and sometimes infantile expansion of capabilities of the simple web browser.Canvas? Resolutions? Sound drivers? web-usb ?!We’re giving up something very valuable when we “improve” html or “enhance” the browser.
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  Devasta
  25 years ago well over 95% of users would have been on windows, and there is no chance in hell you'll ever convince me that modern web development is as easy as Visual Basic was for whipping up UIs back in the day.That AI is making it easier is happenstance, it makes generating UIs in anything easier.
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  505050
  But unlike the year of the Linux desktop (any year now!), the promise of the Web as the app platform of the future seems to recede ever further into the distance.
• plant-ian
  It does seem that more and more browser features have become stable but that has been sort of drowned out by the AI boom. Even with millions of us monkeys on these keyboards, (now monkey simulators?), I still think there are even more discoveries to be found in web dev. You can get so much functionality with even the most basic hardware.
• mmahemoff
  Okay, but how is the title not “Web is All You Need”.
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  theK
  > for software people, being perpetually devalued is pretty novelHadn't really realized this is happening. Is it? Actually my experience right now is the exact opposite.
• bookofjoe
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50398631
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  xyzsparetimexyz
  WebGPU sucks compared to the desktop APIs. JavaScript and wasm suck compared to native code. Not being able to have threads for loading things like assets in the background sucks.Yeah there's a ton of llm slop web games out there but anything serious is going to be a desktop application
• 150g2
  [dead]
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  elxr
  Crazy to say when desktop apps and TUIs are becoming more useful than ever. No the web is not enough, even for something as simple as version control.We're probably further away now from "web is enough" than we were 5 years ago.
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  BatchJob
  The web is a pile of garbage fronted by horrible software in the form of terrible browsers that is under massive, unceasing attack from AI bots that will render the entirety of it unusable over time.It will be shutoff. And i wont miss it.