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Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

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Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#121

Post by daxfohl »

bxparks wrote: post #87
bdangubic wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yup, losing 0.000087% year-over-year so in 865 billion years it’ll be dead :)

That was probably me, when I stopped using Google Search some years ago. :-) Got tired of the ads, the blog spam, and AI-generated content crap floating to the top of their results page.

That's more what I meant. Sure, lots of people still type stuff into the URL bar that takes them to www.google.com/search. But whatever you want to call that results page now, it's no longer Google Search in anything but name.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#122

Post by drnick1 »

piskov wrote: post #117

Microsoft Silverlight. Full C# instead of god forbidden js. Full vector dpi aware UI, with grid, complex animation, and all other stuff that html5/css didn’t have in 2018 but silverlight had even in 2010 (probable even earlier). MVVM pattern, two-way bindings. Expression Blend (basically figma) that allowed designers create UI that was XAML, had sample data, and could be used be devs as is with maybe some cleanup. Ex…

I am happy this one died. It was just another attempt by Microsoft to sidestep open web standards in favor of a proprietary platform. The other notorious example is Flash, and both should be considered malware.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#124

Post by hamdingers »

Lerc wrote: post #26

Boot2Gecko or whatever the browser as Operating system was called. This was a project that should have focused on providing whatever its current users needed expanding and evolving to do whatever those users wanted it to do better. Instead it went chasing markets, abandoning existing users as it did so, in favour of potential larger pools of users elsewhere. In the end it failed to find a niche going forward while le…

I adored my Firefox Phones. Writing apps was so easy I built myself dozens of little one-offs. Imagine if it had survived to today, its trivial html/css/js apps could be vibe coded on-device and be the ultimate personalized phone.

Luckily it wasn't long after Mozilla abandoned it that PWAs were introduced and I could port the apps I cared about.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#125

Post by toast0 »

Lerc wrote: post #26

Boot2Gecko or whatever the browser as Operating system was called. This was a project that should have focused on providing whatever its current users needed expanding and evolving to do whatever those users wanted it to do better. Instead it went chasing markets, abandoning existing users as it did so, in favour of potential larger pools of users elsewhere. In the end it failed to find a niche going forward while le…

It lives on as KaiOS. Has limited success as a low end phone platform now.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#126

Post by JoshTriplett »

JimDabell wrote: post #112
btown wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. No matter how cool the engineering might have been, from the perspective of what surveillance policies it would have (and very possibly did) inspire/set precedent for… Apple was very much creating the Torment Nexus from “Don’t Create the Torment Nexus.”

> from the perspective of what surveillance policies it would have (and very possibly did) inspire/set precedent for… I can’t think of a single thing that’s come along since that is even remotely similar. What are you thinking of? I think it’s actually a horrible system to implement if you want to spy on people. That’s the point of it! If you wanted to spy on people, there are already loads of systems that exist whic…

> I can’t think of a single thing that’s come along since that is even remotely similar. What are you thinking of?

Chat Control, and other proposals that advocate backdooring individual client systems.

Clients should serve the user.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#127

Post by toast0 »

fennecbutt wrote: post #7

Google Glass. Thanks society. People always fail to see something that is an inevitability. Humans lack foresight because they don't like change.

Google Wear is pretty much Google Glass on your wrist, so you don't burn out your eyes looking up and to the side.

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#128

Post by ugh123 »

drnick1 wrote: post #122
piskov wrote: post #117

Microsoft Silverlight. Full C# instead of god forbidden js. Full vector dpi aware UI, with grid, complex animation, and all other stuff that html5/css didn’t have in 2018 but silverlight had even in 2010 (probable even earlier). MVVM pattern, two-way bindings. Expression Blend (basically figma) that allowed designers create UI that was XAML, had sample data, and could be used be devs as is with maybe some cleanup. Ex…

I am happy this one died. It was just another attempt by Microsoft to sidestep open web standards in favor of a proprietary platform. The other notorious example is Flash, and both should be considered malware.

Did Silverlight have the same security issues as Flash?

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#129

Post by Rohansi »

drnick1 wrote: post #122
piskov wrote: post #117

Microsoft Silverlight. Full C# instead of god forbidden js. Full vector dpi aware UI, with grid, complex animation, and all other stuff that html5/css didn’t have in 2018 but silverlight had even in 2010 (probable even earlier). MVVM pattern, two-way bindings. Expression Blend (basically figma) that allowed designers create UI that was XAML, had sample data, and could be used be devs as is with maybe some cleanup. Ex…

I am happy this one died. It was just another attempt by Microsoft to sidestep open web standards in favor of a proprietary platform. The other notorious example is Flash, and both should be considered malware.

Open web standards are great but consider where we could have been if competition drove them a different way? We're still stuck with JavaScript today (wasm still needs it). Layout/styling is caught up now but where would we be if that came sooner?

Re: Ask HN: Abandoned/dead projects you think died before their time and why?

#130

Post by dheera »

bxparks wrote: post #94
dheera wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it "Google TV Streamer" now?

From what I can tell (since I am just finding out about this today), they stopped manufacturing the old Chromecast hardware, and at some point, will stop supporting the old devices. The old devices may stop working in the future, for example, because they sunset the servers. Like their thermostats. Who knows?

I wish there was some law that requires open-sourcing firmware and flashing tools if a company decides to EOL a product ...
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