|
If you want someone to just try something, the willingness of users to click a hyperlink is _massively_ higher than the willingness of anyone to download an executable, or run a script from a command line, or run an installer. This has absolutely nothing to do with "knowing how to use a computer". Personal anecdote: I like building programming environments- sandboxes for playing with unusual languages. My target audience is people who are interested in programming and generally people who are very computer literate. I spent about 3 years working on a complete development toolchain for a fantasy game console- compilers, profilers, documentation, examples- the works. It was spread around, and has hundreds of stars on github. Problem: you need to have a java compiler on your system to install and work with the tools. Number of people who developed programs using these tools aside from me: close to zero. More recently, I built a browser-based IDE for another obscure game console. I made a complete toolchain, wrote docs, loads of examples, etc. This time, though, you could share your programs with a hyperlink, and there was no installation required. You could easily remix other people's programs from a public computer. The difference was huge. Dozens of other people wrote hundreds of programs using this system over a matter of months. If you're making a project you want to share with other people, a web browser removes friction to a degree which cannot be underestimated. Believe me, I _hate_ working with broken, incompatible and terribly designed browser tech, but removing those barriers to entry is invaluable. |