Re: Web versions

[Jacob Bachmeyer]

Taylan Kammer wrote:
> On 06.03.2021 17:45, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>   
> >    I had a suggestion about all the GNU software on your site - since
> >    WebAssembly is now a reality, maybe you guys should get to making
> >    the browser versions of AAAAAAAALL your software? :)
> >
> > WebAssembly, and Javascript are two things that create a grave danger
> > towards user freedom.  Specifically, Webassembly is an even more
> > obfuscated form of Javascript, putting users rights at risk as to how
> > they can run, study, redistribute, and modify the programs that they
> > run on their computers.  You can read more about it here:
> > https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html
> >     
>
> Shouldn't Wasm be seen as a compilation target, that can be implemented
> by GCC?  So for instance GNU coreutils, bash, etc. could be compiled to
> run in a browser tab.  Needs a "little bit" more underlying machinery of
> course, like a filesystem, syscalls and so on. :-)
>   

WebAssembly has access to POSIX APIs?  That sounds like an absolutely 
insane security risk to me, like ActiveX but with cross-platform 
bytecode to make portable malware easy.  Effectively Java applets with 
no sandbox at all...  Maybe LibreJS should categorically block all 
WebAssembly objects for safety reasons?  Mallory could easily just lie 
about his malware blob being GPL...

If POSIX APIs are not available to WebAssembly, then there is no reason 
to even consider porting GNU software, unless Rohit is volunteering to 
write a WebAssembly-platform-specific kernel and the backend support for 
GCC?  Otherwise, shulie's very rude response is probably more 
appropriate than any of us would like to admit, even if it amounted to 
feeding the troll.


-- Jacob