The disappointing part of this is that, with the trend of turning every goddamn thing into a web app these days even when it isn’t the best tool for the job (which already has security implications due to the lack of diversity in tech stack), it would make it prohibitively difficult to control what software you run on your own computer, and probably even to inspect it for security. What a mess…
I think mozilla succinctly explained the flaw in the proposal. Introducing technology to make the lives of the majority better is great, but if the necessary side-effect is to permanently exclude a minority of people from the internet, then that isn’t cool.
I would argue it doesn’t even make anyone’s life better, except google and advertiders’
What worries me most is banks. Banks will want to use this for “security”, shutting out everyone from their own bank accounts unless they’re using a proprietary operating system and browser (which ironically makes them less secure).
And even if some banks don’t, and I can simply take my business elsewhere, how will I know which bank to take my business to? Presumably they’ll only require WEI to log in, not to view the bank’s website as a guest, so I’ll have no way of knowing whether the bank is actually usable until after I’ve moved my money.
It will probably be a decade before they throw the switch, what with all the old people using old computers, so it’ll be a complete surprise when it does happen. One day, in 2033, long after I’ve forgotten about this issue, my bank will suddenly refuse access until I “upgrade” to Chrome or Safari…
Well, yeah probably some websites will require it, probably google’s own will, and people will have to run two browsers for the sites that do, and the sites that don’t.
And yeah they can force sites to switch, by downranking them otherwise, like they did with AMP. But I think that’ll only really alienate people.
