Browser plug-ins were never very popular, for once, web developers could never count on users bothering to install them. It came as no surprise when most plug-ins were replaced by the one true plug-in. But Flash had the nasty side-effect of turning the web into Adobe’s playground. That effect was starkly clear on Linux, for example, where regardless of how good Firefox and Chrome get, Youtube still sucks because Flash on Linux isn’t getting the developer attention it should.
Attempts to finally put Flash out of its misery have concentrated around HTML5 video which brought along its own set of problems in the form of incompatible and patent encumbered implementations. Now, it seems, there is a new approach aiming to solve all those age old problems. With browser JavaScript becoming strong enough to decode video, suddenly you don’t need to wait for plug-in or browser support to play that video from that website.
As JavaScript seems poised to do away with video plug-ins and codecs, its might also do away with webservers. Unhosted.org suggests a development approach where web applications would be implemented entirely in JavaScript with little-to-no need for an application server. This approach has interesting implications with regard end-user privacy and security as well as application robustness.
Ifblog (ponderings 2.0) 