The Roll Out #7

Dec 24, 2025 Comments The Roll Out

The dot-com bubble burst, but the web didn’t. It quietly became part of almost everything we do with digital tech. Last Roll Out, I focused on how CSS, web technology is shaping design across the industry.

That got me thinking about the natural follow-up: the wider web stack is increasingly powering “desktop” apps, especially in professional and enterprise circles. So here’s the question:

As we chase true “convergence”, are web apps the future of computing?

Tech Insight: The Web Became Predictable

There was a time when web tech was known for being flaky. You could build impressive things, but there was always a ceiling. Behaviour was inconsistent, rendering was unreliable, and performance could fall apart the moment you asked too much of it.

That reputation was earned, and it kept teams from trusting the web for mission-critical, “real software”.

But my, have times changed.

The web wasn’t held back by a lack of vision. It was held back by reality. It’s a bundle of protocols, languages, and engines that matured at different speeds, under different priorities. What changed is that the pieces finally started to fit together.

And once they did, something important happened: the web became predictable, because it had to.

Predictability Is What Developers Need

When something works, it needs to keep working. When you ship it, the reasonable expectation is that the experience holds across systems. That predictability reduces risk. It makes software easier to plan, maintain, and hire for, which is why web tech keeps showing up inside “desktop apps”.

Pair that with flexibility, and you get the closest thing we’ve ever had to “write once, run anywhere”. If an app behaves well on the modern web, it’s likely to behave well for most people on most systems.

Even the performance gap is shrinking. Optimisation is better understood, and frameworks like Tauri make it possible to ship lightweight native desktop apps without carrying the heaviest baggage.

This isn’t the web “replacing” native software.

It’s the web becoming stable enough to be trusted with more of personal computing.

Practical Tip: Protect Your Web Experience

If the web is where more of our “apps” live, then the browser isn't just a window to the web, but its operating system.

Two quick upgrades can help:

  • Use a security-focused browser. For example, I recently looked at Helium.
  • Use a password manager so every account can have a strong, unique password.

Even if you do nothing else, the two tips can help protect your experience on the web.

Here’s what I’ve published recently:

It’s FOSS

Explore more of my work

Discover how I blend design and open source through RolandiXor Media Inc. — partner with us to bring your project to life, browse the portfolio for real-world examples, and grab creative and technical resources to power your own work.

→ rolandixor.pro

Support my writing

Want to help fuel more honest, practical stories, guides, and resources for people building and learning across tech and creative work? If my work has been useful to you, consider supporting it here.

→ https://ko-fi.com/rolandixor

Follow me

Stay plugged in to the day-to-day: quick updates, in-progress ideas, link drops, and random sparks of curiosity. Expect a little whimsy too—odd tangents, playful experiments, and the occasional rabbit hole.

Thanks for reading.
Catch you in the next Roll Out!
— Roland L. Taylor
Tags:
Roland Taylor (RolandiXor)

Roland Taylor (RolandiXor)

Barbados-born writer and multimedia designer Roland L. Taylor explores the intersection of open-source, practical tech, and creative storytelling. He builds human-friendly workflows, experiments in public, and shares what he learns, so others can do more with what they already have.

Share

Comments

Comments