For Serious
Considering how much importance the internet plays in our lives, why do we settle for browsers which have been stagnant for years? For the longest time I've been a proponant of Firefox, but was not the typical 'IE Hater'. I thought and still think that a good programmer can get around a few quirks.
Gone are the passive days of the okay browser. Mozilla, IE, Opera, Apple, and everyone else in the browser group must step up. And I don't mean follow the Flock.
Unfortunately the world doesn't know what its missing, not even in the slightest. We've gone full circle with computing, and I don't see us making it a 540. We're using distributed systems in a new way, for the most important operations, but the foundation is weak. How weak? You have no idea.
Dark Clouds
Rejoice they say, I just got my auto-update of Firefox X.X.X! Yay a new version, new almost un-noticable features, I'm going to read the changelog so I don't miss anything! But wait, my banking website doesn't work anymore. I'm getting an "Error: Unknown Operation" message. I can't make that bid to that turntable on eBay, and there's only 3 minutes left!
Do you see where this is going? 10 million people just updated their browser, and a programmer somewhere has made a human error. There is a critical bug and its gone un-noticed.
- Bills can't be paid
- Stocks can't be sold
- Emails can't be read
- Google can't be googled
Face it, we've spent the last 15 years perfecting the desktop experience, we'll spend the next 10 securing it from the wonders that are the internet. Think great wall of China.
They built the Great Wall right through the desert using some of the worst building material you can think of. We build our wonders on similar foundations. Javascript and ancient HTML, and worse we plan to support them going forth indefinetely because we wouldnt want that website written in 1994 to look different than it did then. Imagine the world of music if we supported formats the same way, your iPod would be the size of a large LP.
Dawn breaking?
What is the solution? Its not a browser OS online, its an OS that can be online. Why is our windows background an image of a scantily clad female and not a functional application? Why is it not THE functional application? One which is the hub of our desktop experience. Treat websites that want to be applications as such, and register them as applications with the OS. Give them CPU power, and please for the sake of all the CS'ers to come give us a real language to write in.
The Google Web Toolkit is not the right solution. Why are we writing one high level language with another high level language? Why paint over the old rotten timbers holding things together?
It's late, comment and discuss, please. I would love some other thoughts on the matter.