Your current (desktop) operating system allows these binaries to run with your full user privileges. Any software you download and run has complete access to all of the data from your user account, no matter which software created it. Software can interfere with other software (spyware), can affect anything on the account (malware), and can even harm the system itself (e.g., by consuming resources). Worst of all, because there&#x27;s no isolation you can&#x27;t get rid of bad software: once you run software from the internet on your PC, you are boned. There is no way you can get rid of something that doesn&#x27;t want to be gotten rid of since it can literally rewrite other executables to be itself.<p>Current (desktop) operating systems were not designed for a world where you routinely run code from someone on the other side of the planet who you have no relationship to, and don&#x27;t trust, so you can see cat pics or read a forum.<p>Browsers have a lot of problems, but their security model and ephemeral install model are inspired designs, which directly enable the safety of the modern internet.<p>Having to fall back to classic desktop apps for real speed or power is a terrible thing for end-user security. Either browsers need to get more powerful, or desktop OSes need to take on a browser-like security model.