[millstone]

What a sad vision. Per the article, the most important thing about software is that it is safe. The role of an OS is to protect against abuse. The web is inherently safe; therefore we should use web apps instead of native apps. This is profound technological pessimism.

A different vision: computers empower people. An OS provides APIs and UI conventions, and apps can use them to build upon each other, so that users can bring their knowledge from one app to another. Users invest in learning advanced techniques because it's worth it, because all our software participates (think keyboard shortcuts or Unix pipes).

The web has none of this. Websites are not cultivating a new UI vocabulary. Most websites don't support even basic interactions beyond click and tap. They may even actively parasitize the old: Google Docs supports cmd-Z but not Edit->Undo; we are being taught to distrust our UI, the OS itself is being eroded.

> users who cannot perceive or experience the web delivering great experiences

Then build those great experiences and Apple will change its tune. Seriously.

> The web was a lifeboat away from native apps for Windows XP users. That lifeboat won't come for iPhone owners because Apple won't allow it.

iPhone owners are happy and Apple knows it. On the iPhone, web apps are not a lifeboat; instead the web is displacing high-quality native apps with alien-feeling lowest-common-denominator stuff. No thanks.