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#1
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PWA "apps"
Interesting developments, especially for those who
are running preview builds of Win10. https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/...ge-windows-10/ "Beginning with EdgeHTML 17.17063, we have enabled Service Workers and push notifications by default in preview builds of Microsoft Edge" A PWA is a "progressive web app". Microsoft are outlining a view that webpages need to be made as functional as, and eventually replace, local, compiled software. It's the vision of computers as interactive cable TV subscribed to commercial services on what used to be the information superhighway. Software will be webpages leaking out into the local system, running independently, able to "re-engage" you as necessary to "optimize monetization". The linked article describes the basics, albeit in flowery marketing terms. Service workers: Scripts running locally, independent of webpages. Push: Websites able to send notifications when neither their page, nor even a browser, is running. Local cache: Storage of files that might be needed, so that apps can run offline. This is not just Microsoft's vision. There are w3c specs. Firefox has push functionality being set up, and there are already pref settings for it. (services.push.enabled and dom.webnotifications.enabled, introduced with FF 44.) But what Microsoft are doing is to bring it all to Edge and integrate it with Windows and the Windows Store, making it enabled by default in Edge. Edge becomes the interface for apps/services. (Another attempted end-run around competing browsers. Like ActiveX in IE, linking Edge/Windows/Windows Store means the functionality will probably be more advanced in Edge than in other browsers. Edge *is* Windows Store PWAs.) It's both ingenious and scary, further blurring the line between your computer/your property and the world of commercial services. The tone of this and related articles makes it sound like software was a temporary anomaly and that online services are what computers are meant to do. And of course, Microsoft are promising spyware options and the ability to "monetize" apps, to anyone who sets up a PWA in their store. (In the latest example of Microsoft's tasteless butchering of the English language, they describe the approval of PWAs for the store as their "ingesting" of web apps. Example: "We'll look for a Service Worker as a signal for ingesting PWAs.") That is, people who set up webpage apps and go through the Windows Store will be able to get telemetry data to sell or use for targetted ads. And Microsoft will be the middleman to the whole shebang. Of course all of this could fail. People may not accept push any more than they did when the idea first came out. But articles like this might also be descriptions of the future. And a radically different future it is. And anyone using the latest Win10 gets to try it all out, or work on blocking it, depending on personal preference. |
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#2
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PWA "apps"
Mayayana wrote:
Interesting developments, especially for those who are running preview builds of Win10. https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/...ge-windows-10/ "Beginning with EdgeHTML 17.17063, we have enabled Service Workers and push notifications by default in preview builds of Microsoft Edge" A PWA is a "progressive web app". Microsoft are outlining a view that webpages need to be made as functional as, and eventually replace, local, compiled software. It's the vision of computers as interactive cable TV subscribed to commercial services on what used to be the information superhighway. Software will be webpages leaking out into the local system, running independently, able to "re-engage" you as necessary to "optimize monetization". The linked article describes the basics, albeit in flowery marketing terms. Service workers: Scripts running locally, independent of webpages. Push: Websites able to send notifications when neither their page, nor even a browser, is running. Local cache: Storage of files that might be needed, so that apps can run offline. This is not just Microsoft's vision. There are w3c specs. Firefox has push functionality being set up, and there are already pref settings for it. (services.push.enabled and dom.webnotifications.enabled, introduced with FF 44.) But what Microsoft are doing is to bring it all to Edge and integrate it with Windows and the Windows Store, making it enabled by default in Edge. Edge becomes the interface for apps/services. (Another attempted end-run around competing browsers. Like ActiveX in IE, linking Edge/Windows/Windows Store means the functionality will probably be more advanced in Edge than in other browsers. Edge *is* Windows Store PWAs.) It's both ingenious and scary, further blurring the line between your computer/your property and the world of commercial services. The tone of this and related articles makes it sound like software was a temporary anomaly and that online services are what computers are meant to do. And of course, Microsoft are promising spyware options and the ability to "monetize" apps, to anyone who sets up a PWA in their store. (In the latest example of Microsoft's tasteless butchering of the English language, they describe the approval of PWAs for the store as their "ingesting" of web apps. Example: "We'll look for a Service Worker as a signal for ingesting PWAs.") That is, people who set up webpage apps and go through the Windows Store will be able to get telemetry data to sell or use for targetted ads. And Microsoft will be the middleman to the whole shebang. Of course all of this could fail. People may not accept push any more than they did when the idea first came out. But articles like this might also be descriptions of the future. And a radically different future it is. And anyone using the latest Win10 gets to try it all out, or work on blocking it, depending on personal preference. Every business plan has this line as the last step: Profit!!! Might as well go all in, and make it as evil as possible. Right ? Kinda like the article the other day, showing the OEM OS fee in future will be "proportional to CPU performance". Which is similar to per-core pricing on server OS editions. I noticed in the comment section of that article, the fan bois were poo-pooing the impact, but what it means, is the "progression" on OEM machine cost will be a little bit steeper as a result. The OEM just passes the OS portion on, and by making the pricing progressive, if you want a "nice" machine, you pay the new "nice" price. So rather than Desktops and Laptops dying on obsolescence, they're by dying on the "bed of price" instead. I suppose in this era of "supply side fixing" and "artificial shortage", each company has to dip its ladle into the well in the same way. Why be left behind ? Profit!!! Paul |
#3
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PWA "apps"
On 8/2/2018 23:34, Mayayana wrote:
Interesting developments, especially for those who are running preview builds of Win10. https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/...ge-windows-10/ "Beginning with EdgeHTML 17.17063, we have enabled Service Workers and push notifications by default in preview builds of Microsoft Edge" The word "push" usually means something bad, something like cold calls from salespersons. -- @~@ Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch! Live long and prosper!! / v \ Simplicity is Beauty! /( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you! ^ ^ (x86_64 Ubuntu 9.10) Linux 2.6.39.3 不借貸! 不詐騙! 不援交! 不打交! 不打劫! 不自殺! 請考慮綜援 (CSSA): http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index/site_...sub_addressesa |
#4
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PWA "apps"
"Paul" wrote
| Every business plan has this line as the last step: | | Profit!!! | Well, most anyway. Though there's also a lot of creativity and risk-taking there, too. (If MS didn't have their Windows/Office monopolies their risk-taking would have killed them off long ago. Most of their new ideas lose money.) I found the quasi-technical descriptions of PWAs fascinating. It's Microsoft's twisted twist on the whole thing, but clearly a lot of bright people have put a lot of thought into how the Web could be made more functional. There are some interesting ideas. Though I suppose it's not as creative as it should be. It's trying to adapt javascript in webpages to work like compiled software that lives everywhere. Not a very bright idea, really. Sort of like trying to base the airplane on the car.... "We'll just make the wheels spin *really* fast." I see much of profit-mania as being connected to the birth of the IRA. Oddly, no one ever talks about that change: Before IRAs, few people invested in the stock market and companies were expected to take on some social responsibility. Also back then, news was mostly a public service that TV networks tried to do well. Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were entrusted with the workings of democracy itself. Then IRAs happened and Reagan gutted media regulations. News became Kardashian gossip and accident reports. It became ironically difficult to actually find out what's going on in a world awash in information. And everyone who could afford to started an IRA. That meant that most people had a vested interest in the stock market going up. Suddenly those corporate donations to cancer research or PBS were coming out of our pockets. We wanted Exxon to clean up their spilt oil, but did we want to pay, personally, to shampoo some seagull? Did we want that deducted from our retirement funds? Exxon was supposed to rake in bucks, after all, right? We all owned a fraction of the company for that reason. So now there are lots of people who say it's the job of corporations to make profits. They think that's what capitalism means. And those people don't have your cynicism. They're saying it as though they were enumerating the laws of physics. They've managed to create a separation in their own minds. Kardashian media helps. Exxon-Mobil is a good influence, making our money for us. Oil spills are an unfortunate fact of life. Apple is providing jobs for poor people in China. Walmart isn't destroying small business with their megastores. As the self-appointed genius Thomas Friedman so kindly explained, Walmart is inevitable. Imperialism and exploitation of 3rd-world countries you say? Psychological and physical abuse of employees by Amazon? Nah! That's known as globalism. It's a natural development caused by communication improvements. Everyone benefits. .... Leastways, anyone who's anyone. |
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