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Comment by WA | Hacker News Reader

Why install software, if I can do this quickly in a browser, especially if I need to do this only once?

Even just in the first example of removing a background, it is very intuitive how to do it using the website listed. But GIMP, for all it's improvements in recent years, does not make it nearly as intuitive, fast, and easy for a brand-new user to remove a background. And being presented with that UI would be intimidating for a lot of users compared to using a single-purpose website with a specific workflow.

Not to mention the fact that the browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened.

> browser is very well sandboxed and security hardened.

But the back-end of a browser-only tool may not be. And it may not be online the next time you go to use it. Or it may lose or sell your data.

Sure, there's a confidentiality issue with whatever data you upload, but there's low risk of the rest of the data on your system being compromised.

Very … well … sandboxed … browsers?

Ummm, there’s Spectre in JavaScript.

And everywhere else? Although it does present a risk to sandboxed environments, Spectre is not a sandboxing issue, it's a CPU bug.

Semantic, shemantic; Risk remains the same.

The risk is very much not the same. Running native code is much higher risk, compared to running JS inside a browser.

The list of bad things a web app can do is a strict subset of the list of bad things a native app can do (after all, the web browser is just another a native app).

While it is true, there are problems with customization and other features; a better sandboxed environment will be needed which e.g. can use command-line, better ability to control and make connections/interactions with other programs in the computer, locally storing file (even using without internet connections), etc. The web browser / HTML is, I think, not a very well designed sandboxed environment, really.

Notably if JavaScript can access a file system then all bets are off.

I think you're confused, browsers don't require server custody of your data. browser vs app isn't the meaningful distinction

Because websites change the rules when they get popular.

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