Browser lock-in?

What makes you think web applications made with this kit work only in Chrome?

So understand I've got a bit of history here, back in the old days I was working on Java/HotJava and the whole applet thing. Netscape was doing their own thing with what would become known as Javascript. Our vision was "Gee everything that runs in Java can run anywhere, regardless of OS or device etc etc." its a great vision. In the nearly 20 years since since Java pushed out the door (March '95, best of times and worst of times :-) this has never worked. Not for Java, not for Javascript, not for C#, not anything. Certain browsers work, some don't, there are quirks everywhere.

The default defensive strategy is to pick one browser you know work and select that as the 'standard.'

Not complaining just noting the lock in is an emergent property.

I think that to some degree the lack of certification for browsers (and ditto for Java runtimes back in the days) is what is causing this. Write-once-run-anywhere became Write-once-debug-everywhere.

Java seems to finally start to deliver on this promise though, the last few years have seen quite a bit of improvement. (Still far from perfect though, just the other day I was fighting some corporate website that insisted I install a certain version of Java in a certain browser in order to be allowed access, and it crashed in terrible ways when I finally did gain access).

Imagine that your browser simply wouldn't be allowed on the web until it conformed to a standard. Just like cars aren't allowed to go on the road if they do not conform.

This is unlikely to ever happen for various reasons and I don't think it would be a good thing but the number of broken implementations and hacks-that-became-standards is too large to even count by now.

Didn't J2ME have a certification process? That was still a hot mess to develop for.

One of the core values behind this project is that it should work extremely well cross-device and that most definitely means on devices where Chrome isn't the primary browser. During development we've ensured that we test on Firefox OS, Windows phone, iOS and browsers other than Chrome which run on Android. I want to give people something that they can rely on. Chrome isn't the only browser in the world for sure :)

Looks like browsersync is a Chrome only proprietary feature.

http://browsersync.io/ - at least the server side seems to be open.

Nope. This is a chrome feature that just happens to have the same name as that site. There is no connection.

No, it's http://browsersync.io/ - the readme links directly to that site: https://github.com/google/web-starter-kit#features

I stand corrected. This is a design-time tool. I mistook it for the consumer feature of the same name.

I don't think he means locked into a single browser, I think he miiiight mean "generally locked into using a computer at the level of a browser vs. at the level of the OS." As in, "your mom and uncle will buy a web-browser, they won't buy a computer."

Correct me if I'm wrong :)

I don't think so. This is the sentence he replied to:

"The only plus I see in all this is that in the end we are now free of the API lock-in that OS vendors traditionally required"

The discussion here is about APIs that are specific to Apple, Microsoft, Google etc.