Re: Firefox wants a bit of ads+AI

On 24/02/2025 03:51, Retrograde wrote:

Making a competitive browser is
hard, and clearly requires a lot of people and a lot of time. Donations are
fickle, nobody will pay for a browser,

Does the browser need to be changed much now?
Service providers need to provide apps, so:
  (1) they do not need to give cookie popups
  (2) they can certify and take responsibility for compatibility with their server-side interfaces, because the users can't (not even by commissioning their interaction devices with strong warranties).
So they could pay for whatever and the firefox developers don't need to care. The rest of us only need good-old web (if only the informative content still existed or could be found).
The big problem is providing for sandboxed installation at real-world locations, so I can get the app direct at a bank location without involving a 3rd party distributor who may control my activities or shoe-horn themselves into a stronger position against me and my preferred service providers.
Really, I want to go back to the 1990s game console interaction concept using a wallet-sized card like a cartridge. Computing declarative UI instructions and network messages in a credit-card format could be done in the 1990s. small message encryption can be done now, surely? Let me slot my bank card into my interaction device and get the bank app on-screen without it having meaningful control or access to the device and have my banking secure against all but infiltration of the interaction device.
Aren't we even reaching the point where the card has the touchscreen and needs only a battery and radio to be pressed against it so it can be the whole app? If it's not a really important app, or it's just another calendar and ticket buying app they can just become plugins to a well-generalised app anyway.
The full turing-complete app is a huge problem, amazon is presenting one-click buying for £2000 purchases as an up-sell on £0.00 product pages in a web-format where buttons jump around the screen as pages load and dangling USB cables click all over your screen while you sip your tea so something's got to give to take browsers back away from the trading coal-face.
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Tristan Wibberley