[Klathmon]

For me, it's because "native apps" still fail at the first step, installation.

Whether it's a website, or web-app, "installing" it is as easy as going to a URL. You can go to that same URL on your PC, phone, tablet, your friend's computer, etc. and it will run the same. It's easy to share, easy to remember, and if it takes more than 5 seconds from the time you hit enter to the time you are using it, we consider that a mistake on the creators part. Plus the ability to discover new applications is extremely easy, and interoperability with other web applications is both easy for the developer and the user.

Compare that to desktop applications where installation is still an "event", and you are lucky if it can be done faster than a few minutes. Plus there are portability issues (oh that doesn't have a windows version?), it's difficult to share (try explaining how to install software to a non-technical person...), there is DRM all over the place, and they are significantly less secure.

Even most mobile applications take 30+ seconds to install on my android phone, and have all the same issues with discoverability, cross-platform issues, vendor lockin, and permissions/security issues.

[schmichael]

Support for more advanced features like WebGL, DRM, codecs, etc vary by browser and platform. Even the protocols underlying the web - HTTP and TLS - have varying levels of support that affect app developers and portability. Not to mention sharing a link between mobile devices and desktops doesn't always work very well.

Don't get me wrong: I appreciate the portability of the web. I just worry the focus on making it more native-like will introduce more of what makes the native ecosystem so frustrating.

[Klathmon]

Per the more advanced features.

The one thing that the web has that native doesn't, is a standards body that works to unify and standardize these features so they can eventually work across all platforms.

There have been hiccups in the past (probably the most notable one being the WebSQL vs IndexedDB, but luckily that's mostly sorted out now), but for the most part it's been pretty smooth sailing.

Yeah, you definitely need to wait longer to use new features that can't be "polyfilled" or "shimmed", but the "reward" is that the entire platform is at least moving in the same direction.

While I agree that native has some pretty massive upsides, I personally feel that they should be reserved for things that need them, much like how assembly is treated when compared to higher level languages. And bringing those upsides to the web in a safe and consistent manner isn't a bad thing.

[tnorthcutt]

Relevant: https://xkcd.com/1367/