Google moves closer to letting Chrome web apps edit your files | Hacker News Reader

Google moves closer to letting Chrome web apps edit your files

techrepublic.com

19 pointsleeoniya10 comments

> Consent by the user

Like Android permissions hell?

Why do Google do this kind of things? Can't they see it's not worth it? How could my 12 years old daughter understand that her farm, barbie or chicken whatever don't need access to read and write her files?

Agreed. Bad actors will exploit the non tech savvy users.

Google pushes these concepts because they want Chromium to be the operation system that will replace Linux/Windows/Mac. Something like Chrome - Total Control Edition.

Why, I dont know - but in the 90s people said Microsoft was after world domination. Similar reasons might apply.

This could be one of the hardest and most gamechanging UX challenges since email. Because if they get the security model right and allow informed user consent for an app to access a folder it shares with others... then it's a quick step towards POSIX and mmap APIs for WebAssembly. Then the web literally has parity with operating systems.

Great, a giant WebAssembly blob reading and writing my files. What could go wrong?

I used to be so enthusiastic about stuff like this. Sadly, I don't think this will be cool at all.

I don't think this will ever reach parity with desktop operating systems, because they don't want us using desktop operating systems at all. I would not be at all surprised if the only code that has access to this is signed by Google and maybe hosted on their servers.

I like this.

Currently, webapps can read files from disk using an upload dialog and write them to disk by triggering a download, but this is clumsy enough that it only really works as an import/export feature. Webapps are essentially forced to have their "native" document storage be an online service, usually bespoke to that specific app.

Files on my disk are files under my control. I can back them up myself, pay for their storage myself (rather than be subject to inflated cloud rates), and easily bring them to other web or native apps. Files hosted on my account on some website are... less so. If you're lucky, the storage costs are reasonable. If you're lucky, there's an API. Often there isn't.

Given the problems in the past with extensions being sold and exploited by the new owners, this could get really ugly.

Of course it could also be very useful, but I'm going to wear my tinfoil hat until proven wrong.

it's not great but not terrible

"This is fine."

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