> The web is crazy complex these days because it is an entire app platform.
I'd prefer something that's not crazy complex, that's not "an entire app platform" designed and implemented by Google. Google essentially controls the W3C (Mozilla would vanish if Google stopped funding it), and controls the monopoly rendering engine.
Half of websites are better without JavaScript and web fonts, and 99% are just text, images, and videos with maybe a few simple controls. For the other 1% I can fire up Google Chrome and suffer the whole platform.
I want a web rendering engine for the 1%, that does the simple stuff quickly and isn't a giant attack surface around 30 years of technical debt and unwanted features calling itself an "application platform."
This actually reminds me that early in the HTML5 era one of its key selling points was that you could play videos using just the <video> element. There would not be a need for Flash, Silverlight or JS. However these days it is extremely rare to come across a site that can successfully play videos with JS turned off. Complicated JS has de facto become a requirement for videos but it doesn't have to be.
I too have nostalgia for a time when prices were reasonable, politicians didn't philander and children respected their elders.
And yet here we are :-)
For what it's worth, despite it being /en vogue/ to rag on Google, the Chrome team has some of the most talented and dedicated folks focused on building a vibrant and interesting web for most people in the world.
I'd prefer something that's not crazy complex, that's not "an entire app platform" designed and implemented by Google. Google essentially controls the W3C (Mozilla would vanish if Google stopped funding it), and controls the monopoly rendering engine.
Half of websites are better without JavaScript and web fonts, and 99% are just text, images, and videos with maybe a few simple controls. For the other 1% I can fire up Google Chrome and suffer the whole platform.
I want a web rendering engine for the 1%, that does the simple stuff quickly and isn't a giant attack surface around 30 years of technical debt and unwanted features calling itself an "application platform."