- ChromeOS
- EdgeOS
I think it is safe to assume that WASM and WebGPU will play a big role in the near future
I don't understand why it is this underestimated and underappreciated
AR content / Games, that'll be huge
Wait... when has it been underappreciated?
Besides things like ChromeOS, many "platform native" apps have moved to become essentially wrappers around web apps. It's pretty safe to say that what was originally built as web technology, has essentially become the modern baseline of cross platform development (HTML/CSS for specifying interface layout, JS for business logic and WASM/WebGPU to take advantage of extra hardware capabilities under a generic wrapper) and it's only natural that more capabilities are desired of it.
I think what's lacking right now is more reflection on how to deal with the security and privacy implications in a future where applications are all essentially zero-click installs. WASM has already been used for cryptojacking, it's not that hard to imagine WebGPU being used for that too. The security implications have been the bane of earlier web distribution of code. From ActiveX to Java Applets to Flash, the history of web distribution (and security flaws with them) is a very long one...
WebGPU and WASM are not like a camera and microphone where you can just pop up a permission dialog to turn them on/off. In order for them to gain wider adoption (rather than end up being a security liability like Flash), we need to think about how a user may be able to control granular access of these resources for what are essentially untrusted (and opaque) applications.
And more importantly, how does it prevent abuse for cryptomining without consent?
Lol, they've been saying that since 3dfx and VRML and three decades later, still nobody cares. It's just marketing hogwash from desperate executives. Why would it be earth shattering? It's just games. Faster computers. Incremental graphics. Yay? It's nothing revolutionary.
https://adobe-flash.github.io/crossbridge/
You just needed to wait a decade for the wheel to be reinvented.
I do lament Flash though, because we would have gotten to this exact spot sooner if a better transitionary path was navigated, but more importantly losing the content and skill base of the Flash era was a huge loss.
A standard so open any stakeholder can push forward the cutting edge of the standard by proposing features and getting them widely adopted, which for some reason only happens to things invented at Google.
It's nothing like Flash - it's much more like OOXML.
Flash piled on features well after it's heyday. In a lot of cases, it's pretty likely that your first time experiencing some of the more advanced capabilities would be with the web platform equivalent rather than Flash Player. I never got the impression that the sole reason for adding features to the web was just to replace similar Flash functionality; even during Flash's heyday, alternatives to what it had to offer were prevalent at points.
The closest I think the web platform comes to actually copying Flash was actually the SVG standard, which has some really peculiar features... Like raw sockets. I think it's hard to deny that that really is something motivated by and for the purpose of competing with Flash. However, if my recollection serves correctly, that was done by Adobe prior to acquiring Macromedia.
Back in the 2000s when I was a teenager with virtually $0 in personal savings (I had the family computer, but no budget for buying professional software) I wished I could make the kinds of Flash games I played in the browser. The fact that Flash required expensive software (I wasn’t comfortable pirating software until I had my own computer that I could risk on my own) meant I couldn’t participate.
I’m admittedly a bit jealous that today’s kids can get a programming environment set up for free (once they have a computer) and make games and whatnot that will run in the browser that they can share with their friends. But deep down I’m happy for them: The world of programming is deeply imperfect, but it’s better than it was when I was growing up, and that is in fact progress.