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Comment by MortyWaves | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it’s a good thing USB ports are not available to browser based code.

As a Linux user I love WebMIDI, because it means I don't have to open a Windows VM anymore to run firmware updates / utility tools for audio gear manufacturers that embrace it (e.g. Novation).

WebUSB should enable the same for more types of devices, but of course there should be appropriate permission mechanisms.

Webmidi is godsent for Akai LPD8 controllers. It came with software that's used to reprogramming midi banks. Software never got updates and doesnt work anymore in any modern mac. Thank $deity for webmidi and some reverse engineering, i can reprogram it to a degree that its at least functional and dont need to throw it away.

Why does that require a browser and not software you run natively?

WebMIDI has been used by porn sites to track users:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23679063

As I understand it, it was because WebMIDI was accepted by Chrome without prompting the user.

To me it seems should be impossible use it for tracking after they added the prompt.

That is/was a Chrome problem, Firefox only allows WebMIDI after granting permission. Unfortunately its implementation is also incomplete/buggy so I still often end up using Chrome for those use cases anyway.

Whenever the committe crams another desktop features into the browser you can be sure it is mainly convenience and surveillance!

No, it's not.

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