Robuta

New web services are being built to a self-defeatingly low UX and performance standard, and existing experiences are now pervasively re-developed on...

It would be tragic if public sector services adopted the JavaScript-heavy stacks that frontend influencers have popularised. Right?

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

Is there a generic, unform way to think about web performance? What is web performance? What's it for? A humble attempt to answer those very deep...

A deep dive into the arguments offered by Apple and others to defend a lack of browser engine choice on iOS. Instead of raising the security floor, Apple has...

Cupertino's attempt to scuttle Progressive Web Apps under cover of chaos is exactly what it appears to be: a shocking attempt to keep the web from ever...

Despite advances in browser tooling, automated evaluation, lab tools, guidance, and runtimes, modern teams struggle to deliver even decent performance with...

Aug 16, 2024 - JavaScript overindulgence remains an affirmative choice, no matter how hard industry 'thought leaders' gaslight us. Better is possible, but we must want it...

Under regulatory pressure, mobile OSes are opening up and adding features that will allow PWAs to disrupt app stores ... Yet with shockingly few exceptions,...

I've been hearing confusing reports of Apple's openness to collaboration on challenging APIs so often that either my priors are invalid, or something...

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

Frameworkism is now the dominant creed of today's frontend discourse, and it's bullshit. We owe it to ourselves and to our users to reject dogma and...

Mobile OSes and their most successful apps have drained browser choice of meaning for more than a decade. This has lead to confusion for users and loss of...

Apple vs. Facebook is, and always was, kayfabe. In reality, Apple is Facebook's chauffeur; holding Zuck's coat while Facebook wantonly surveils iPhones...

SNAP benefits sites for more than 20% of Americans are unusably slow. All of them would be significantly faster if states abandoned client-side-rendering, and...

Working Groups do not invent the future, nor do they hand down revealed truths by divining entrails like prophets of the House of Iamus. In practice, they are...

Jan 22, 2026 - Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

I have worked with dozens of teams surprised to have found themselves in the JavaScript ditch. They all feel ashamed because they've been led to believe...

How much HTML, CSS, and JavaScript can we afford? More than in years past, but much less than frontend developers are burdening users with.

Some folks claim that Apple's mandated inadequacy for browsers and their engines is somehow beneficial to the cause of ensuring a diverse pool of web...

Embedded in this year's network and device estimates is hopeful news about the trajectory of devices and networks. It has never been easier to deliver...

Apple bent the knee for months, leaving many commentators to ask why. But the reasons are not mysterious: Apple wants things that only the government can...