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Why do experts like Brendan Eich criticize Windows 11’s reliance on WebView2?
Windows 11 faces growing criticism regarding its architecture. The operating system increasingly prioritizes web-based frameworks like WebView2 and Electron over native code. This shift affects core components, including the Start menu, Windows Search, and the Notification Center. Users often experience this transition as “bloat” or system sluggishness.
The core issue lies in resource management. Native applications interact directly with the hardware, offering optimized memory usage and speed. Web wrappers, conversely, run a browser instance inside a window. This approach demands significantly more Random Access Memory (RAM) and Central Processing Unit (CPU) power to perform identical tasks.
Expert Criticism: Brendan Eich Weighs In
Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and CEO of Brave, recently criticized this development trajectory. His perspective holds significant weight given his foundational role in web technology. Eich identifies the problem not as a failure of web technology itself, but as “rushed web UX over native.”
Eich argues that high-quality web applications require time and optimization. Most corporations, driven by tight deadlines and profit margins, skip this optimization phase. He connects this trend to modern business incentives, specifically the push for subscription models rather than “buy-to-own” software. This rush leads to technical debt and a degraded user experience. He further suggests that relying on massive libraries like NPM (Node Package Manager) introduces unnecessary complexity and vulnerability.
Case Study: Discord’s RAM Management Struggles
Discord exemplifies the inefficiencies of the Electron framework. The application recently implemented a controversial workaround for memory leaks. The software now forces a restart when RAM usage exceeds 4GB.
Discord engineers admitted the application lacks memory efficiency. While they claim a 5% reduction in peak memory usage, they have no plans to transition to native code. Instead, they rely on patches that interrupt the user experience when system resources reach critical limits. This approach treats the symptom rather than the root cause of framework overhead.
The Regression of WhatsApp and Teams
Microsoft Teams and Meta’s WhatsApp demonstrate a similar regression in quality.
Microsoft Teams
Users consistently report performance issues. Microsoft acknowledged these problems but opted for process isolation (separating calls from the main interface) rather than a native rewrite.
Meta previously maintained a native Windows application built with WinUI and XAML. They recently abandoned this efficient version for a WebView2-based client. Consequently, the messaging app now frequently consumes over 1GB of RAM, a massive increase for a text-based utility.
The Impact on the Windows Ecosystem
The integration of web technologies extends beyond third-party apps into the OS itself. Microsoft replaced the native Agenda view in the Windows 11 Notification Center with a WebView2 component.
This change has measurable consequences. Simple background processes that previously required negligible memory now consume exponentially more resources. For an individual developer, cross-platform web tools save time. For a corporation valued at over $3 trillion, the inability to build native user interfaces for basic calendar functions signals a prioritization of developer convenience over consumer hardware performance.