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Comment by svnpenn | Hacker News Reader

Personally Ive never cared about the performance aspect. If you care about that, you probably shouldn't be targetting the browser in the first place, but instead a native app. What has always turned me off about WASM, is that all the tutorials Ive read say you need some kind of JavaScript shim to get it working. That doesn't feel like a first class solution to me. If I can do WASM without any JavaScript, then I am interested.

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Everything has to be in the browser now. People don't download and run programs any more.

Even if they want to, the programs have to be approved by Master Control. Apple [1] and Microsoft [2] are gradually tightening the restrictions for installing an executable on their platform. Downloading a program and installing it is now called "sideloading". Even for desktops.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/

[2] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/publish/store-p...

> Everything has to be in the browser now

I have about 20 exe in a folder that say you're wrong. I also have about 9 other folders with unzipped programs that say you're wrong. Nothing is stopping anyone from downloading an executable file and running it on a desktop computer. Nor should it.

How do you think people do software development? Or do you just think new programs come from magic pixie dust?

"Nothing is stopping anyone from downloading an executable file and running it on a desktop computer." Have you ever had a job? If you're in a workplace you probably don't have admin rights to install software on your desktop unless you are a dev, and even then it's not exactly guaranteed.

> If you're in a workplace you probably don't have admin rights to install software on your desktop unless you are a dev, and even then it's not exactly guaranteed.

OK then, ask the admin to install it, I don't see the problem. If its appropriate work software, then it shouldn't be an issue. Web browser should be for... browsing the web. If you're simply using a browser to bypass admin restrictions, it seems like you're doing something wrong.

Not to mention the fact the website hosting the application might be blocked by the same admin.

An admin won't just install it. Any software installed on a system connected to the corporate network is a security risk and would need to be vetted.

This takes weeks and can often take months. If the choice is between writing the business case, getting management sign off and waiting weeks for deployment vs running it immediately in the browser, I'm choosing the browser.

Understood. However what you're saying is quite different from the other user, who was saying "Everything has to be in the browser now".

My read on that comment was more along the lines of everything must also be available to run in the browser now because users demand it. The performance of apps run in the browser has improved so much lately that users' habits and expectations have shifted.

Right.

Can we just run Docker containers in the browser and be done with it?

You may enjoy this: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...

For home computers, there's now "Windows S".[1] This is totally locked down. "To increase security and performance, Windows 11 in S mode runs only apps from Microsoft Store."

It's possible, for now, to turn off Windows S mode. For now. Usually. The Windows Store server has to approve turning it off. In an enterprise configuration, some in-house server has to approve.

[1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-10-and-w...

> It's possible, for now, to turn off Windows S mode. For now. Usually.

As much as I enjoy seeing someone trash Microsoft, this is just a dumb take. Like I said to the other user, how do you think software development happens? Microsoft wants people to develop using Windows [1][2][3]. You can only do that by installing additional software. This is not, and never will go away. Yes, some corporate setting will have locked down computers, but thats how its already been for several decades.

1. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET

2. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)

3. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/F_Sharp_(programming_language)

There are good use cases for WASM in the browser where the js shim is transparently provided for you, e.g. for game engines that export to web. As for non-web use, I believe the wasm runtimes that exist generally don't require js shims.

Also even if you don't care about performance, WASM can arguably provide a sizable security benefit for a number of use cases such as not-fully trusted plugins.

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