> Answer: bank/financial apps, enterprise apps, government apps and copyrighted media (music, video, games, books, ...). Those are the players that demand excessive control over end-user devices, and thus the ultimate driver behind the problem we're discussing.
Those work perfectly via a browser, on any platform where the browser can run. As long as a hypothetical open OS has a browser capable with bog standard modern capabilities, it will be fine
I tried to log into a banking website on a full desktop browser recently, one that I had previously used with a password. It literally would not let me login until I downloaded their app and set up a passkey. That is now the _only_ way for me to access those accounts. Presumably, I could call in, though I wouldn't be surprised if the person on the phone also asked that I download the app in order to verify my identity, and even if it wasn't the case, they didn't offer that option when I was trying to login. Many bank websites now also require the phone app.
There are banks that do not work via a browser. But no one prevents them from doing that. It's their conscious choice, not a technology limitation
The happened to me with Uphold, precisely yesterday.
It required me to install the application to sign in via web browser. There was no way, the web app wouldn't bulge.
I did it, checked my $5 dollars balance and deleted the app again.
Totally disgusting behaviour.
Remind me again what video quality Netflix gives you when streaming to an open browser on an open OS?
You mean Firefox that refuses to support web standards for encoded video streams for ideological reasons?
Wasn't aware of that, can you send a link explaining?
For a while Netflix didn't support 1080p on browsers other than Edge on Windows or Safari on Mac. This has changed somewhat but they still reserve their resolution content for their "blessed" OS/browser combinations
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/30081
It's not just Netflix. It is also FaceTime calls for Firefox. This is the reason why Netflix limits Firefox.
Here's the discussion of that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27432001
You're saying I can use Revolut in the Firefox on, say, Fedora?
People have genuine reasons to stay with the provider / platform and usually browser doesn't cover half of their use cases.
For example I have to use Revolut because it's one of the very few banks that allow me to use Garmin Pay and work (reluctantly) on my phone without Google rootkit. Can't use, say, Curve because their privacy policy is alarming (and I had a very very weird/disappointing interaction with their compliance team).
And you've already got a good example with Netflix.
You're getting downvoted because that's not the point.
You are technically right, we still have access to these services via a web browser today. It doesn't mean we'll have it forever.
With the advent of AI browsers and AI agents, it's not hard to think of a future where LLM chat interfaces and mobile apps are the future, and web apps start getting disregarded as legacy and eventually, discontinued.
Try ordering some food via mobile application and then again via web app. You'll instantly feel the downgrade on the web app. Bugs, glitches, slow experience.
The desktop web is already the 2nd-class citizen for modern startups.
My reply is a counterpoint to the statement that banks, government services and streaming services require excessive control over my device. They aren't, as they all can run in a browser, which sandboxes them from the OS. That's it.
And I guess people who downvoted my counterpoint thought that it means that all services on the planet have very well functioning browser version, judging by their comments. Some don't, some do. But no one of them "requires" excessive access a native app can provide.
Some may want to have it, for some browser version is simply not a priority. But nobody needs to have additional info for those services to function.