Down with the Web.

(Part 1 of 2)

Let's cut the to chase: The web is a 1960's era IBM mainframe, and it sucks.

Mainframe interfaces are characterized by a query-response mechanism. Your terminal requests a starting point and a screen is sent to your terminal — the terminal being your remote interface to the computer. You read the screen, enter data in a few fields, then send the screen back to the mainframe. The mainframe processes it, then sends you a new screen. Lather, rinse, repeat. It was little more than a paper-based system running at 300 baud.

By the 1970's, the minicomputer, pioneered in the marketplace by DEC, had changed the face of computing by selling computers with interactive terminals. Instead of exchanging screens, the user's terminal was an actual process on the minicomputer. It was still limited to text (for the most part), but you had a realtime access to the computing resources. This turned out to be a profound change. Instead of filling out forms, submitting them to "the office", and waiting for a response, you actually manipulated data directly. The paper-style interface was replaced with fast command/response cycles, enabling users to work more quickly and flexibly. Interactivity at 9600 baud.

By the 1980's, personal computers had appeared on the scene. Like the much more expensive minicomputers, they had interactive text interfaces. Unlike the minicomputers, 100% of their capacity was devoted to one user. You worked directly with the data — a first, outside the halls of academia and obscure corporate research facilities. And for the past two decades, we have worked with data ever more directly and intimately. Personal empowerment as fast as your hard drive can spin.

Then the web came along. You start by opening a terminal — although we call it a "web browser" now. It opens a "home page". You read the screen, maybe type in a few web form fields, then click "submit" or click a link. The request is sent back to the web server. The web server processes it, then sends you a new screen. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's little more than a paper-based system running over a T1.

It's a very fancy mainframe terminal. It has colors and pictures and different typefaces, and sounds, and rollover effects, and Flash geegaws and doodads, and all of that fools us into thinking we're looking at an interactive system. But we're not. We're looking at a forty year old mainframe interface that's been worked over by a graphic designer with an XGA screen.

The web sucks. Down with the web.

(Coming real soon now: Part 2)