Web-Enshittification: Why the Creator of JavaScript Says Windows 11 is Broken
Windows 11 continues to accrete web components virtually everywhere—from Discord and Teams to WhatsApp, Windows Search, the Start menu, and even the new agenda view in the notification center. The situation has grown so pervasive that it has caught the attention of Brendan Eich, the legendary creator of JavaScript and founder of the Brave browser.
Microsoft recently denied rumors that Windows 11 was being rewritten with the help of AI. Yet beneath that story lies a far more consequential issue: the company is increasingly relying on web frameworks—particularly WebView2 and Electron—instead of native code.
Eich, who also played a foundational role in Firefox OS and was closely associated with the webOS project, has been outspoken in his criticism of this approach. In his view, the problem is not web technologies themselves—they can perform well when implemented properly—but doing so requires time, and companies are often unwilling to invest it.
“The hidden truth is that the core problem with Windows 11 is WebView2 and Electron. I’m against bloating the system through rushed use of web interfaces in place of native ones. It can be done right, but it takes time,” Eich wrote on X.
In the same discussion thread, one user suggested that WebView exists to enable tighter control and acclimate users to subscription-based software. Eich pushed back: “How does choosing between web and native code help with that? Native code is actually better for locking users in.” In his view, the real issue lies in the broader shift toward a “subscription instead of ownership” business model, which he associates with a general degradation of product quality. Eich even went so far as to call NPM (Node Package Manager) a mistake.
Discord serves as a telling example. The application consumes memory so inefficiently that its developers opted to automatically restart it once RAM usage reaches four gigabytes. Even so, there are no plans to migrate the app to native code.
“Yes, we’re testing restarts when memory exceeds 4 GB (typical usage is under 1 GB),” a Discord employee wrote on Reddit. After public backlash, the company clarified that the restart only occurs if the user has been inactive for 30 minutes and is not participating in a call.
Microsoft has likewise acknowledged performance issues with Teams, yet instead of addressing the underlying cause, it simply moved calls into a separate process.
WhatsApp’s trajectory is even more illustrative. The app began as an Electron-based web wrapper, was later rewritten by Meta in native WinUI/XAML, and after several years of investment in native development, was abandoned in favor of a return to WebView2. Today, WhatsApp on Windows 11 routinely consumes around a gigabyte of RAM.
The problem, however, extends beyond third-party software. Microsoft has introduced a WebView2-based agenda view into the Windows 11 notification center—even though the equivalent feature in Windows 10 was fully native. Opening this component causes Edge-related processes to spike from roughly one megabyte of memory usage to well over a hundred.
When a small studio opts for a web framework to achieve cross-platform compatibility, the decision is understandable and often justified. But when a company with a market capitalization exceeding $3.5 trillion cannot—or will not—deliver a native interface for something as simple as a calendar, it inevitably raises uncomfortable questions.
Support Our Threat Intelligence
If you find our technology report and cybersecurity news helpful, consider supporting our work.
Buy Me a Coffee
PayPal
