I think the effect of teenagers with notepad is greatly exaggerated. IMO, the reason why html/js succeeded is because it was (and still is) literally the only option available if you want universal discovery and security. Software distribution logistics used to be a nightmare compared to an application that only required the user to visit a website. It also eliminated an entire class of UX issues with regard to application stability, OS compatibility, and over the air updates. Additionally, as the general population became more educated about the risks of executing random binaries downloaded from the internet, and the features/performance available to browsers simultaneously exploded, html/js became the defacto application platform of contemporary computing.
The eventual advent of the iPhone and the subsequent explosion of the app store also demonstrates that ease of entry is unimportant. The iOS platform was and still is the public platform with the highest barrier to entry, yet none of that matters because getting secure software distributed easily to users is the ultimate killer feature.
> It also eliminated an entire class of UX issues with regard to application stability, OS compatibility, and over the air updates.
Did it? Web applications are not inherently more (or less) stable than native applications, and OS compatibility issues were replaced with browser compatibility issues.
> Web applications are not inherently more (or less) stable than native applications
Absolutely. The browsers are extremely stable and generally don't crash. The individual applications may still be bug prone but those bugs generally don't take down the system.
> OS compatibility issues were replaced with browser compatibility issues
Sure, but it's a much less severe problem (the potential for bugs rather than binary incompatibility) and one that developers can easily remedy based on visitor statistics without customer's having to download, update or take any action. This problem also becomes much less of a problem every day as the browsers converge on common standards.
> This problem also becomes much less of a problem every day as the browsers converge on common standards.
Only Firefox and Chromium are able to keep up. It's an improvement over native apps working only on Mac OS and Windows as they are mostly open source, but still only two platforms.
What? Native apps crashes stopped bringing down the machine decades ago. Sure there's the occasional bug in the OS (= kernel and system services), but browsers have bugs too.
The eventual advent of the iPhone and the subsequent explosion of the app store also demonstrates that ease of entry is unimportant. The iOS platform was and still is the public platform with the highest barrier to entry, yet none of that matters because getting secure software distributed easily to users is the ultimate killer feature.