Could be - I've been making this observation for a long time. The cycles keep going. On the other hand, probably lots of other people have commented on it as well...
You may be right about the browser becoming the OS. Chromebooks were already a step in that direction. But JS/HTML/CSS really is a horrible combination for application programming. If the browser does become the OS, can we please get decent technology to work with?
Re:Stop building databases
by PH95VuimJjqBqy on Friday December 01, 2023 @04:07PM
(#38492413)
I expect we'll get back to native applications and move away from js/html/css.
Re:Stop building databases
by marcosdumay on Friday December 01, 2023 @06:11PM
(#38493865)
HTML and CSS aren't too horrible as foundational tech. CSS needs a little work, but both allow for a lot of good abstractions. They may be some of the best platform we've ever had.
They are bad at just being directly programmable targets.
They made an observation that our industry goes in cyclical centralize/de-centralize cycles and that we we were (at the time) entering into a centralization cycle.
Now here I am reading a comment that we're going back into a de-centralization cycle and I wouldn't be surprised if you're the same poster.
probably 15-20 years ago (maybe more?) I made a prediction that I still think will come true.
The OS will become the "browser" and applications will run directly on the OS and will access local resources through standardized interfaces. WebAssembly and things like WebGL are already moving us in that direction. Honestly HTML5 was the first time I recognized standard updates as moving us towards that reality with things like localStorage, etc.
I honestly think if someone more imaginative had the helm at MS when the cloud started getting big they would have eaten google's lunch by leveraging their desktop dominance into the web. Instead they dd inane things like display websites on the desktop (win98 IIRC).