&gt; people there routinely download and install new applications and typically never interact with Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or Instagram via their browsers. Why should the situation be different on the desktop?<p>Er, because that would be really silly.<p>I like reading HN from time to time. I would never install an app, because I don&#x27;t use it frequently enough. I definitely would never go through the pain of installing a HN app every time I wanted to read HN. I really doubt I&#x27;m alone or even abnormal in that regard.<p>That&#x27;s the beauty of a browser: I can be reading HN in under a second when I want to, with no cluttering of my desktop just so I can read HN from time to time.