Is Apple participating?
So, the effort to get buy-in from the big companies that matter has been going on for some time, and now that we've done that, here's the result: Every big company that matters except Apple.
It's not as though the list of the four big companies that matter is too long to reasonably be expected to name the fourth, and the name of the fourth is not webkit.org or Fil Pizlo.
So, it seems to be either an "Oops, we accidentally left one of the four out of this important announcement," or there is still enough of a problem with Apple that we decided not to delay the announcement any longer to wait for them.
Since Fil opened a webkit bug to implement wasm, I would at least hedge my false-dichotomy bet and avoid getting my mad on. Free advice, take it or leave it.
(The first paragraph is actually me telling you pretty much what happened. Same thing as with WHATWG launch in 2004, BTW. Does not mean "OMG there is something WRONG and only TRULY SHINY COMPANY noticed and OBJECTED". Yeesh.)
How can we know what concessions these players have made or what kinds of collusion they have agreed to?
Shouldn't the Web be built in the open -- not subject to a cabal of corporate overlords who won't reveal their intentions or thoughts?
As for "getting my mad on," you seem to have gone off on some sort of tirade at the end there implying--how ironic--that I actually wanted TRULY SHINY COMPANY to save us from wasm, and your caps-lock key seems to have gotten stuck when you banged on it.
I hope you can relax. All will be clear pretty soon, I am certain. There's no need to be nervous. Well, no need to be more nervous than usual! ;-)
I'll watch these pages and let out a woot! the minute Apple officially makes it unanimous.
Expect to see it implemented, sites like iCloud made to take advantage of it, performance metrics aka marketing collateral gathered and then a slide or two at an upcoming Apple Event with cheers from the audience.
Apple is a product company first and a technology company second.
It may have taken a while, but with all these individuals and organizations cooperating in an open space, we may finally advance yet again into another new era of innovation for the web.
I am really excited about this, much like others in these comments.
We have been beating around the bush to have a true assembly/development layer in the browser for a long time: Java applets, Flash, Silverlight, you name it - but no true standard that was open like Javascript is open. This component has the possibility of being the neutral ground that everyone can build on top of.
To the creators (Brendan Eich et. al) & supporters, well done and best of luck in this endeavor. It's already started on the right foot (asm.js was what lead the way to this I think) - let's hope they can keep it cooperative and open as much as possible for the benefit of everyone!