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Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

blogs.windows.com

31–40 of 313 posts

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#31

This seems widly exploitable. Even on the OS level, I would argue an application should not have access to thoes 30 pixels. Beyond rhe security concerns, this seems like a proprietarization of the web for Win11, a la Internet Explorer.

They do explicitly discuss how the feature might work on other platforms (aka Mac OS and Linux), and have published a spec, which is also an interesting read: https://wicg.github.io/window-controls-overlay/

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#32
> We’re excited to announce the availability of a new PWA feature that closes this gap and helps blur the line between apps and websites even more.

I don't see how they can use "blurred line" as a positive trait here. There are important differences between native apps and web apps, why hide this information from a regular user, especially when this information can be conveyed by 30 pixels.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#33
post #28

I want the opposite of a PWA. I want an app which can be compiled into Desktop/mobile builds and also interpreted in browsers. An alternate HTML/CSS/JS with no JavaScript.

So ... Flutter? https://flutter.dev/

Sure. As well as certain other platforms like Kotlin multiplatform

The only issue is that these still have to compile to JavaScript, which in practice leads to slower performance and potential for improper semantics on the JS side. It would be better to have them executed in WASM and then have better WASM-browser integration

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#34
post #6

With all this Electron and PWA focused development a cannot shake a feeling that we add an extra layer of a "runtime" on top of an operating system, that could be avoided. An extra layer which occupies RAM space and processor time which feels unnecessary but it is where we are headed. I wonder if the reason is simple, that we (myself included) have not provided anything better or the reason is that big corporations w…

The obvious solution to this is to remove the bottom layer so that the browser is not a layer on top of the OS, but is the OS.

Hypervisor based os is future ,for eg qubes os

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#36

> We’re excited to announce the availability of a new PWA feature that closes this gap and helps blur the line between apps and websites even more. I don't see how they can use "blurred line" as a positive trait here. There are important differences between native apps and web apps, why hide this information from a regular user, especially when this information can be conveyed by 30 pixels.

Well right now, the alternative isn't "keep it in the browser", it's "ship it in electron".

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#37
post #12

I think this is a sign that Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. There will be a day when Windows is left behind, and they want to make sure that they can continue to deliver the Microsoft experience, even on other platforms.

I don’t think Windows is ever going to be left behind, you still need a kernel to make use of all your hardware and an OS to give users something to do. I view this move as Microsoft recognizing that the future of most development is cross-platform web technologies and they need to give Windows users reasons not to migrate to macOS and ChromeOS (though it’s ok if they do as long as they’re paying for O365 and Azure).

I think you're right, but that also poses the possibility that Windows will get left behind, as a kernel. If the future of development happens on the web, the significance of Windows as a kernel is going to greatly diminish. We've already reverse-engineered a huge amount of Windows API calls, and you can run vast amounts of fairly complex Windows software without the NT kernel at all.

If our future does shift towards thin-clients and web-browsers, MacOS and Windows will make increasingly less sense. Both OSes have a pretty significant amount of cruft and unjustified overhead which already seems unnecessary to a generation of Google Docs and Soundcloud users.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#38
post #6

With all this Electron and PWA focused development a cannot shake a feeling that we add an extra layer of a "runtime" on top of an operating system, that could be avoided. An extra layer which occupies RAM space and processor time which feels unnecessary but it is where we are headed. I wonder if the reason is simple, that we (myself included) have not provided anything better or the reason is that big corporations w…

Do you think Microsoft loves it that people are building Windows apps with Google tech?

But this ship has sailed a long time ago.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#39

> We’re excited to announce the availability of a new PWA feature that closes this gap and helps blur the line between apps and websites even more. I don't see how they can use "blurred line" as a positive trait here. There are important differences between native apps and web apps, why hide this information from a regular user, especially when this information can be conveyed by 30 pixels.

What difference does the runtime make to the (average) end user? I love that I can create shortcuts of some web apps that have their own window, menu bar etc. (this is already possible in Chrome) and I don't really care they are "web" apps.

Re: Closing a 30 pixel gap between native and web

#40

This seems widly exploitable. Even on the OS level, I would argue an application should not have access to thoes 30 pixels. Beyond rhe security concerns, this seems like a proprietarization of the web for Win11, a la Internet Explorer.

You have to install PWAs, and any platform can implement this. It's a pretty good spec that can help a lot with the adoption of PWAs
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