[tempoponet]

> Or it just happened to monopolise the browser at a time when the web was being invented, and has nothing to do with the features of the language

But applets were doing a lot more in the 90's and Flash dominated into the 2010s. However you feel about JS today, it's difficult to say it was all "first-mover advantage".

[zelphirkalt]

Was Flash ever really good for anything close to normal programming?

And Java applets with their loading times and dependence on the visitor having Java installed ... nah, not really a competitor.