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Comment by 0xDEEPFAC | Hacker News Reader

I don't think I like this trend of web browers having so much power over hardware - seems like a huge vulnerability.

Also, how much memory do these changes involve? With these chromium updates every single elektron app I use will be affected?

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This is just the next step in the evolution of browsers into full fledged operating systems. The Web APIs would become the next POSIX. And we might end up with uni-kernels that would just be running browsers on bare-metal. Want to be stalked, here is your Chrome OS. Want privacy, here is your Firefox OS. (Where did I last hear of these? Hmm...)

Who knows, when all this is over someone might make a browser for this new browser OS.

Gary Bernhardt saw this coming long back. https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

This increase in browsers leveraging hardware capabilities is not necessarily a bad thing. Think of it as the cost of advancement. Chances are that most devices nowadays come with sufficient memory to handle these. And for cases where this would harm overall experience, there are always toggles.

Though not to underestimate the vulnerabilities some of these advancements bring. Some tech such as Bluetooth have been exposed to security bugs in the not so recent past. Am also partly concerned about how complex & almost OS-like browsers have become today. Read ChromeOS etc. They also expose too much information at the hardware level to webpages.

Though as complex as the big browsers get. We'll always have simple browsers such as Webkit-based Epiphany that still stay true to the traditional Web browser in essence.

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