rdri

I mean if the binary and the keys are available somewhere on the internet...

The article mentions Chrome/Chromium: 9 times
The article mentions Google: 0 times

Google made Chrome. Chrome had that multi-process architecture at its core which allowed to consume as much memory as needed even on 32-bit OS. Chromium was always inside it and open source. Then they created CEF, which allowed webdevs to build "real" apps, and that opened the floodgates. Electron was first built on it but they wanted to include Node and couldn't because it required too much experience in actual coding. So they switched to Chromium. It didn't change much in the structure, just basically invited more webdevs to build more "real" apps (at 1.0 release Electron advertised hundreds of apps built with it on its website).

Google could do something about how the web engine works in frameworks (that don't need that much actual web functionality), but didn't. They invited webdevs to do anything they want. Webdevs didn't care about security because mighty Google would just publish new Chromium update eventually. They never realized they don't need more security in their local "real" apps gui that connect to their websites because there is not much room for security danger in such scenarios. They just always updated the underlying engine because why not. Chromium dll is now at 300 mb or something? All of that code is much needed by everyone, is it not?

So, for me the sequence was always seen as this:

Google (caring about webdevs, not OS) ->

Webdevs (not caring about native code and wanting to sell their startup websites by building apps) ->

Reckless web development becoming a norm for desktop apps ->

Corporations not seeing problems with the above (e.g. Microsoft embedding more stuff with WebView2 aka Chromium)

So yes, Google has everything to do with it because it provided all the bad instruments to all the wrong people.

Personally, I don't care much about hating Microsoft anymore because its products are dead to me and I can only see my future PCs using Linux.

And it always used Chromium under the hood.

Thank Google for those cool products.

https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/issues/5095

Using jellyfin on Chromecast. For the past 3 weeks I'm stuck not being able to use it because some update broke subtitles support for external players. App became useless, I can't downgrade it, and the bug is still not fixed.

Not going to use Plex, just my 2 cents.

Nah it's probably just Edge (aka Chrome) all over the new UI.

I mean does it even look like creators are aiming to produce child like appearance? Full sized products would be more expensive to create and ship, and for customers - to buy and store.

You can easily buy a compact silicone alternative with human body features and... you'd be called a mutilation maniac?

Is there actual correlation between buyers of such products and real child abusers?

Not all web apps are overengineered crap

I didn't say that. There are always well engineered apps and things. But few. Compared to that, a lot of mainstream desktop apps are now web apps for no good reason. The actual reason is webdevs not challenging themselves to become something else or at least better.

If I read your case correctly, it's basically "customers use crappy laptops -> we decided to make them use web browsers" which sounds insane to me because web content IS the reason why tons of otherwise unnecessary upgrades are done in recent 10 years or so. Office guys can't use Chrome with just 8 GB of RAM because it will affect their business performance.

Not that I don't believe your case doesn't contain other specifics that make web a right choice. And I don't need to know more of that. It's just how it sounded to me.

Not desktop. Native. You can build native apps for smartphones and pretty much anything. Web comes into play when you decide you won't build native version of what you want. In some cases that is guided by thoughts like "I know web will fit this project. I know the platform and will remember to keep memory and internet usage low", but in most cases it's about "no idea what that startup is about, but I know some AngularJS and they said I can use AWS so that'll do".

Similar thing is happening now with Unreal Engine 5. The difference between devs and webdevs became very similar to the difference between coding and vibe coding.

and doesn't need to store a ton of data

I know by data you mean "data I care about as a dev" but that should also include data that is actually processed and saved on user's device. And webapps are notoriously bad at keeping their caches and data usage low.