Why Browsers Get Built

Like Platform Adjacency Theory and The Core Web Platform Loop, this post started[1] as a set of framing devices that I've been sketching on whiteboards for the best part of a decade. These lenses aren't perfect, but they provide starting points for thinking about the complex dynamics of browsers, OSes, "native" platforms, and the standards-based Web platform. There are only two-and-a-half reasons to build a browser, and they couldn't be more different in intent and outcome, even when they look s...