"Computing is still young, and platforms are changing quickly. Modern browser extensions and smartphone platforms have only been around for about a decade. These platforms will evolve, and there will be new platforms after them, and we will get to collectively decide how open they will be."
I really like this final comment. As a non expert in computing, I also often think about how young is this field, and I fantasize about how it will evolve, hopefully towards a more accessible and open ecosistem.
> we will get to collectively decide how open they will be.
The author is way more optimistic than me here. I'd love if that were the case, but with the way the wind is blowing, I doubt that it'll be a collective decision between users and the big tech companies running today's computing platforms. If anything, it'll come through regulation.
It's highly unlikely that e.g. iOS or Android will suddenly and out of their own initiative open up their APIs in a way that would allow building anything like "reading mode"/distraction removers, ad blockers, data extraction allowing mashups between different apps etc.
Google's main customers aren't Android users, but app developers who run in-app ads and sell in-app purchases; the same is to a large extent also true for Apple (although DMA-like changes might shake up things a bit, and their reasoning for not introducing such apps will likely be security and platform integrity, not ads).
I really like this final comment. As a non expert in computing, I also often think about how young is this field, and I fantasize about how it will evolve, hopefully towards a more accessible and open ecosistem.