Re:Doing Laundry on Campus Without a Phone
by Aerbil313 on Monday September 04, 2023 @06:05AM
(#37378938)
I have never considered the idea that native apps can be objectively evil. Thinking about it, it has its merits. Consider a smartphone with only a web browser which doesn’t support WASM and Web Workers, but supports installable PWAs.
* The tasks one strictly needs in a smartphone does not require intensive computing, the kind not possible already with JS. Games do. Banking, govt services, online shopping, messaging applications don’t. Name me one such application.
* Applications would consume far less power without compiled binaries or WASM, and without being able to run in the background. This would greatly extend battery life.
* All applications would be properly sandboxed with a permissions model and source-code inspectable.
* The tasks one strictly needs in a smartphone does not require intensive computing, the kind not possible already with JS. Games do. Banking, govt services, online shopping, messaging applications don’t. Name me one such application.
* Applications would consume far less power without compiled binaries or WASM, and without being able to run in the background. This would greatly extend battery life.
* All applications would be properly sandboxed with a permissions model and source-code inspectable.