🔗 Why NetNewsWire is not a web app

Tim Bray writes, on Mastodon, I think correctly:

The canceling of ICEBlock is more evidence, were any needed, that the Web is the platform of the future, the only platform without a controlling vendor. Anything controversial should be available through a pure browser interface.

This is not the first time I’ve had reason to think about this —I think about issues of tech freedom every day, and I still bristle, after all these years (now more than ever), at having to publish NetNewsWire for iOS through the App Store. (The Mac version has no such requirement —it’s available via the website, and I have no plans to ever offer it via the Mac App Store.)

But what if I wanted to do a web app, in addition to or instead of a native app?

I can picture a future, as I bet you can, where RSS readers aren’t allowed, or are highly discouraged somehow, and we’re essentially required to use billionaire-owned social media and platform-owned news apps.

But there are issues with making NetNewsWire a web app.