[mike_hearn]

But none of those differences are especially interesting. They certainly don't matter much for the ecosystem, and have no impact on web developers. All the major engines have comparable performance. And the differences are dwarfed by what they must do the same, because the way web tech works basically only allows one implementation architecture.

If you wanted to innovate in browser tech you'd really need to leave the specs behind. SCIter is an example of such an engine. It exposes APIs that are useful for app devs but that regular browsers don't have, for example it provides the vdom diffing algorithm React uses but implemented natively.

Even better if your browser can go beyond HTML and enable fully different ways to do apps and documents. That's the only place where design decisions can start to have a big impact.

[ngrilly]

> If you wanted to innovate in browser tech you'd really need to leave the specs behind.

This is pretty much what the author is suggesting by the end the article: "Instead of being a Web browser, you might want to initially try just being a faster, lighter or lower-power Electron or WebView. Then the Web compatibility barrier would be much less of an issue."