>But even with those - in the end we're stuck with the Browser and DOM infrastructure and the slow as molasses W3C standards process that seems to be at a standstill.
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>+++ Rick ---

Agreed but is that really bad?
Let's crank the clock back and pretend that we had never left DOS.
Except for plug and play (it saved my sanity) would our desktop apps be significantly worse off? Has the chaos created by a constantly changing underlying platform been worth cost of keeping up with it?
For all its warts, HTML has at least been a stationary target.
Amazon, Facebook, et al, have done some pretty dazzling things with that clunky platform.