That's the thing is though if most of the web is about sending documents and media, while only a fraction of it is spent on delivering desktop applications, then wouldn't it be better to just split off the part of the runtime needed for applications into it's own thing so we don't have to run untrusted code just to read a blog or watch YouTube?
You're more than welcome to do that if you'd like, but most users don't like - because it turns out documents and applications tend to go hand in hand (just like your code is data, and your data can be code). Basically - that line is a hell of a lot more blurry than you're making it out to be.
If you don't want to run javascript - use a browser that doesn't run javascript, or turn it off in your browser of choice.
If you don't want to run js to play youtube - open the video url in VLC.
But again - I think you're glossing over the progressive nature of a lot of these applications. Ex: Youtube isn't just a video feed (despite what we'd sometimes like). It's an application with comments, streaming, voting, searching, sharing, and many more features.
Can some of those be done without JS? Yes.
Does it make since to use JS to implement many of them? Yes.
Can some of them only exist with JS? Yes.
Go click the "Go live" button in Youtube and then come back and tell me how you're planning on implementing that application feature in plain ol' HTML?
Of course documents and applications go hand in hand. You need applications to view them after all. But do documents need to also be applications?
I submit they do not. Maybe YouTube has to have js for it's features but I don't accept that that's good. I don't accept that what YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo and Dailymotion provides warrants the need for each to have their own separate applications that have to be downloaded and allowed to run on my system.
I can understand that. In some situations I can even respect that. I think - sadly - you're tilting at windmills.
In other situations - I'd argue you're just wrong. The simplest benefit of a web app vs a local app is exactly the isolation that the browser provides.
To be blunt - the applications from youtube/dailymotion/twitch/etc are NOT running on your system. They're running on the browser. They can't touch your files by default, they can't touch your other apps, they are uninstalled when you close the tab. That's incredibly powerful. It's incredibly liberating too. Users in places with fairly tight restrictions on installed software are almost always allowed to use most web apps (the limitation is usually concerns around inappropriate content - not so much security).
Basically - The browser is the OS that is literally designed around allowing you to run unknown code downloaded from other networks, from untrusted sources, with a modicum of security and consistency.
I think it's very, very hard to surpass the browser as a distribution method, and I think the possibilities it allows are, frankly, miles beyond basically anything else we've invented in the space.
Do some folks go overboard and create bloated, crappy web apps? Absolutely. Just like some desktop apps are complete pieces of garbage.
Does that mean we should throw the baby out with the bath water? My opinion is a resounding "no".
> Do some folks go overboard and create bloated, crappy web apps?
I'd argue the problem is they create unnecessary web apps. Every damn corporation's and its aunt's (no matter how tiny mom-and-pop organizations they are) home page, basically just a fricking brochure, is an endlessly-scrolling blinking self-reformatting SPA nowadays, in stead of just a simple page that stays the fuck put in the browser so you'll actually the link you thought you were clicking.
(There, ya gots any more clouds for me to shake my walking stick at?)
> the applications from youtube/dailymotion/twitch/etc are NOT running on your system. They're running on the browser.
The browser runs in your system. The applications run in your system. This is as inane as saying any other interpreted language doesn't run in your system.
> they are uninstalled when you close the tab.
Except for all of the parts that aren't
There's no reason you can't achieve the same level of isolation in other runtimes. I don't think it's likely this would take off, obviously, we're already too deep into the browser-as-shitty-os rabbit hole.
