[C14L]

The browser would cache that automatically. And in many cases, you'd probably use a Service Worker to implement your own custom cache and "install" the application locally in the browser, so that is usable offline and only version updates are downloaded in the background.

[oblio]

Weren't applets also cached?

To be honest, I think that hate of applets comes from a time when 56kbps download speeds were considered very high, the average CPU had 1 core at 200 Mhz and the average webpage weighed 20k and executed 5-10 lines of Javascript.

I haven't used applets in the time, but if the user experience would be improved (nice looking UI, respecting modern UX conventions, etc.), I imagine your average applet from circa 1999 would run circles around Gmail, for example :)

[mping]

Not only that, swing applets are notoriously fugly. One reason electron is successful is because it kinda looks like native. Swing Look and Feels all seem alien.

[oblio]

Swing can be styled, it's that not a lot of people really bothered. Jetbrains products use Swing and they're decent.

Not amazing, but decent.