Re the @MightyApp streaming browser approach being touted as the future of computing, I will stick my neck out against some of the most respected names openly backing this and calling it the future of tech.

This is a dangerous technical approach.
🧵
Network/edge computers have been a tempting and promising technology for 25 years, but are flawed IMHO for *wide use* for deep, fundamental reasons:
In general, there are use cases for which cloud is much better than doing it on one’s computer. Eg google docs, figma and other cloud webapps have drastically improved our user experience and reduced setup and management headaches.
But these purposes are niche and do not generalize to everything - e.g., common use cases like watching on YouTube or Netflix, reading nytimes, logging into my bank etc. - there is no need for another intermediary in the middle
Browser is the personal gateway to the world of the Internet. It has too much data about me and overall just too personal to be outsourced to a “trusted server”... (would you outsource changing your own clothes every morning and evening to someone else?)
There is nothing to be done about this privacy hole. VPN or encryption is irrelevant. Mighty will always have the full log of everything I do on the web, my cookies, logins, passwords, everything. That is scary control to give to anyone, much less a startup.
They will say and I am sure they will try their best to follow the best security practices. But breaches and calls for censorship happen to the best. Centralization and delegation of one's personal data in-full is fundamentally flawed. mightyapp.com/security
And for what? It’s the latency not throughout which is an issue with browsing websites. Latency: you type a URL and wait for the page to render.

Latency of most websites and actions will be _worsened_ by adding another hop (Mighty) in the middle.
Because of this, Mighty will at some point have to stop being a purist streaming only platform and introduce some local computation in their thin client.

It’s a slippery slope and they will end up reinventing the current roadmap of hybrid client-server computing technologies.
Yes memory usage should be improved by streaming esp. with some heavy web-apps, but we should expect those apps themselves plus the browser to get faster and resource efficient over time. eg, Brave, Chrome, Safari are not sitting idle
The economics also fundamentally don’t make sense. In order to deliver a good experience, Mighty will need to over-provision powerful computers in their cloud. Users will need to pay hefty subscription for them to make it economically viable. But...
...much better and much cheaper would have been for the user to pay for a faster computer and internet in the first place! At least they own the computer then rather than leasing it from someone.
I will continue to outsource some of my software needs to the cloud but the whole personal gateway? No thank you, not even for free.

Yes I am trusting Apple and Google today by using their OS and browser but I would rather trust them and their engineers than another startup's
Again there might be niche use cases like constrained devices, collaborative browsing or when there’s a need for centralized controls and management of browsers in enterprise setups, but as a generic consumer technology, it seems to be the wrong idea to me.

/fin
This was going to be my tweet in reply to what looks like has been deleted now.

“Might have been more productive if you read the thread and responded to the concerns than being holier-than-thou.”

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Pankaj Gupta

Pankaj Gupta Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @pankaj

2 May
STOP. THE. IPL. NOW

It’s not just inappropriate and insensitive but downright shameful, appalling and tone-deaf to continue the glitzy IPL.

No we don’t need thrillers in Delhi. We need more oxygen, hospitals, beds and medicines. Urgently.

#StopIPL
Just across the road from where this grotesque spectacle happens daily is a hospital.

Cricketers & the administration - do you have a shred of decency?

People are dying daily in the thousands. Everyone knows someone in their 1st or 2nd degree that has died recently.
Convert the stadiums to hospitals. Divert the enormous resources being used for the cricketers’ and the IPL staff’s bubble towards this catastrophic and humanitarian disaster in India.

Wake up and smell the deaths and misery around you! #StopIPL
Read 7 tweets
19 Apr
“Networkless Mobile Payments With Minimal Changes in Trusted Execution Environments” just got published tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/4…

So I am excited to finally talk about this foundational work that I & a small team have been doing in Google Pay along with our Android Security team.
All digital payments today are built on the fundamental assumption of Internet connectivity. Basically, every payment transaction needs to ring up one or more remote servers every time.
The server checks for stuff like fraud and double-spend and enables book-keeping and is essential for overall security. This is also true for decentralized blockchain networks. Servers and connectivity are a must.
Read 20 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!