Web Browsers Are Technically Bloatware (No Matter What Runs in Them)
Yesterday I explained to a person how Web browsers work; the context was, a PC had hung. Why? Because the browser was open "too long" with a "webapp". Fixed by connecting to that machine over SSH to killall firefox-esr, but who in their right mind would consider this acceptable and normal for so-called 'computing' in 2026? This is like local "DoS". This is "OK"???
It's not getting better, is it? Days ago someone commented on what "headless" came to mean. "IMHO," he said, "in the past anyhow, SuSE had the best most featureful flexible installers, allow for remote install over many many many different ways. Somehow the idea of requiring a graphical head with a graphical web browser so that you can do a "headless" install makes my head spin."
In some "modern" distros the installer (for the ISO) runs in a Web browser. What an awful design choice!
Making things that work "in a Web browser" is bad not only for security reasons (lots of flaws and poor sandboxing); it's utter bloat and it is literally slow. Some "major" browsers even "made a point" of making all settings/configuration pages mere "Web pages" or "tabs" instead of application windows (Chrome infected Firefox and its derivatives with this mindset). In the past, Firefox had many command line options, e.g. being able to specify window size, orientation, and other parameters. This has been watered down.
In short, making everything work "in a Web browser" means requiring a very bloated ("modern") browser, thus reducing compatibility, worsening security, and forcing people to buy new things.
The "in a Web browser" mindset is not something to be commended (as "novelty"). It typically happens because of poor Computer Science education (if any!) and people trying to interject the little they know into everything.
We already live in a society that sometimes says (submissively), "WHY U DONT HAVE A SMARTPHONE !!"
Don't make it a society that shames people into using a Web browser where none should be needed. In fact, most of the time computers aren't needed and weren't needed (e.g. fax, landline, post). Old and "traditional" ways are sometimes the best available solution. If some business wants "efficiency" and "cheap" (to the business, not to the customers), people are left without physical receipts or with chatbots handling complaints, i.e. not handling anything at all. █