[madez]

There are people that lobby for closed source and distribute closed source, and there are people that lobby for floss and libre software. And then there are hypocrites.

Mozilla is bathing itself in it's image of standing for a free and open world. The truth is that it's business in "The Web" is creating the groundwork for a closed and non-free world. This hypocrisy cries out deafening.

[kalcode]

A language being compiled or not has nothing to do with the web being free.

Like I said we can already pretty much transpile our code to practically speaking, an unreadable state.

Companies can already choose to make their code closed source and transpile it. If there goal is to make it more closed they can do that now.

WASM doesn't change that. People can still make their code open source, they can still write in plain javascript. Its really no different. Instead we are giving people options and the ability to have more performant apps in the ones that require it.

[Vinnl]

Mozilla is also realising that the web needs to compete with native apps as well. Note that it's even easier to hide the source of native apps.

(Furthermore, many apps that would use WASM probably have a significant server-side part as well that is not necessarily open source.)

[superkuh]

At least native applications are something static you can verify. With web 'apps' like, say, anything based on electron, the end user has no control about what code is run. Instead the 'app' just pulls down and runs whatever the company/etc wants you to run dynamically and differently every time with the permissions you gave originally.

[Vinnl]

Your mention of Electron is the perfect example of why this is no different for native apps. Of course, on mobile this is usually mitigated through app stores, but there is no reason similar mechanisms could be introduced for the web if this really turns out to be problematic.

[superkuh]

Electron is not a native app. Electron is a browser web app marketed as a native application.

[nostalgeek]

Chrome browser is only 50% of Electron. The other 50% is a complete nodejs distribution which allows access to the OS filesystem, network, anything Java or .NET can do on a desktop... So no, it's not just a browser web app. Electron is absolutely native to the OS is runs on.

[Vinnl]

The only reason it's got all those permissions is because it is a native app, which can claim all those permissions. Sure, Electron app are browser wep apps marketed as a native application, but by definition, native apps can do everything Electron apps can do.