[neave]

> All the user needs is an URL. No "downloading", no installation, no special user permissions, no app shops, no gate keepers, no walled gardens...

Exactly. The humble hyperlink is the most amazing thing about the web. It's simple yet devastatingly powerful.

I'm not a snob about the programming languages of the web. I don't care what language I need to learn to create content for the web, or what tools I need to use. The language and the tools will always be a means to an end — that is, the radical ability to provide free and instant access to any content for everyone on the Internet.

(from a blog post I wrote "why I create for the web": http://blog.neave.com/post/64669185529/why-i-create-for-the-... )

[millstone]

I noticed the shift from the parent's "software" to your "content." The distinction is critical. Most web pages are content, i.e. what's worthwhile in them is their media (text, images, video, etc.), and not their code. What draws us to HN is its content, and we appreciate its minimalist aesthetic, i.e. if it it used WebGL or something it could only be made worse.

As a content delivery platform, the web is unparalleled, ridiculously good. I have paid for content (for example, NSFWCorp), and will do so again in the future.

But as a software delivery platform, the web is unproven if we are to be kind, and crap if we are to be honest. Web software is fragile, limited, and subject to the whims of the site maintainers, who may modify it without warning, or even remove it entirely (e.g. Google Reader). I have spent hundreds of dollars on native productivity software, games, etc. but I have yet to spend a dime on a website for its JavaScript.

That may change in the future, but I doubt it: any program that's a sufficiently good web app can be rewritten as a desktop app with more capabilities. Ultimately the web may be the go-to place for trivial or gimmicky software, but the most powerful apps will be peers to the browser.

[flohofwoe]

You're right, its more about software, less about content (but the line between software and content is blurry anyway). But it is becoming harder and harder to actually distribute software to user's desktops or mobile devices since these platforms have either been closed from the beginning (iOS, game consoles), or are quickly starting to become closed (OSX, Windows8). You can no longer simply send a download link to your users, or have your own download website with a 3rd party payment provider. The user has to jump through a comical amount of hoops to get the app running (Do you really want to run this extremely dangerous software downloaded from the interwebs? Administration rights are needed to install this software!, etc etc etc etc... its a travesty).

Everything has to go through the centralised, closely guarded app shops. You'll have to go through silly certification processes to get your app into the app shop and if the platform owners (or some minion working in certification) feels like it, they can just remove your app without warning.

Compare this to a web app. You deploy the stuff on a web server of your choice, the user clicks on a link. Done.

[JoeAltmaier]

If by 'free and instant' you mean 'just pay for an ISP/phone carrier and wait for a page to load, or a web-app to spin and spin'.