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Web-browsers-need-to-stop.md (3421B)

    

  1. ---
  2. date: 2020-08-13
  3. title: Web browsers need to stop
  4. layout: post
  5. ---
  7. Enough is enough.
  9. The web and web browsers have become Lovecraftian horrors of an unprecedented
  10. scale. They've long since left "scope creep" territory and entered "oh my god
  11. please just stop" territory, and are trucking on through to hitherto unexplored
  12. degrees of *obscene* scope. And we *don't want* what they're selling. Google
  13. pitches garbage like AMP[^1] and pushing dubious half-assed specs like Web
  14. Components. Mozilla just fired everyone relevant[^2] to focus on crap no one
  15. asked for like Pocket, and fad nonsense like a paid VPN service and ~~virtual
  16. reality tech~~.[^3] *[2020-08-14: It has been pointed out that the VR team was
  17. also fired.]*
  19. [^1]: *No one* wants AMP. Google knows it, you know it, I know it. If you're a Google engineer who is still working on AMP, you are a disgrace to your field. [Take responsibility for the code you write](https://drewdevault.com/2020/05/05/We-are-complicit-in-our-employers-deeds.html). This project needs to be dead and buried and the earth above salted, and it needs to happen yesterday.
  20. [^2]: ~~No layoffs or pay cuts at the management level, of course!~~ It's not like they're *responsible* for these problems, it's not like anyone's fucking *responsible* for any of this, it's not like the very idea of *personal responsibility* has been forgotten by both executives and engineers, no sir! *[2020-08-14: It has been pointed out that some VPs were laid off. I also wish to clarify that the personal responsibility I find absent at the engineering level is more of a commentary on Google than Mozilla.]*
  21. [^3]: Oh good, the *web* is exactly what VR needs! It's definitely *not* a huge time-sink requiring the highly skilled low-level engineering talent which Mozilla just finished *laying off*, or years of effort and millions of dollars just to realize that the new state of the art is still just an expensive and underwhelming product whose few end-user applications make half of their users motion sick.
  23. Microsoft gave up entirely. Mozilla just hammered the last few nails into their
  24. casket.[^4] ~~Safari is a joke~~[^6]. Google is all that's left, and they're
  25. *not* a good steward of the open web. The browsers are drowning under their own
  26. scope.  The web is dead.
  28. [^4]: Next time they should aim for their executive's heads, maybe they'll jostle them around enough to get the two wires in each of their heads to make contact so that they're briefly capable of making basic decisions and not just collecting multi-million-dollar paychecks.
  30. I call for an immediate and indefinite suspension of the addition of new
  31. developer-facing APIs to web browsers. Browser vendors need to start thinking
  32. about *reducing* scope and *cutting* features. WebUSB, WebBluetooth, WebXR,
  33. ~~WebDRM~~ ~~WebMPAA~~ ~~WebBootlicking~~ ~~replacing User-Agent with
  34. Vendor-Agent cause let's be honest with ourselves at this point~~ "Encrypted
  35. Media Extensions" — this crap all needs to go. At some point you need to
  36. stop adding scope and start focusing on performance, efficiency, reliability,
  37. and security[^5] at the scope you already have.
  39. [^5]: The web *might* be one for four on these right now.
  41. Enough is enough.
  43. [^6]: 2020-08-14: I haven't used Safari in over 10 years, so maybe it's not so bad. However, so long as it's single-platform and closed source, it's still a net negative on the ecosystem.