The reckless, infinite scope of web browsers
What I think is the takeaway from this is that there is a real need for a platform-agnostic application layer above the native OS. It's a peculiarity of history that HTML evolved into it, and not Java, Flash, Silverlight, Adobe Air, etc.. Probably because the timing was right for applications to exist at least partially remotely.It's fun to dream about a more deliberate replacement, with the same local/remote transparency of a web app, but with well thought out abstractions for local hardware and permissions.. Like, binaries are LLVM IR, Jit'd to the local architecture. Audio is openAL, graphics are Vulkan, local devices are [no-current-equivalent-standard-API], with fine grained security on all features.
It could be run locally, or with resources streamed over network. Opening an application could just be a 'URL'..A little like a progressive web app, but not a weird outgrowth of an old page layout standard.