Once upon a time, we had mainframes with simple, nonprogrammable consoles. All the power was centralized. Then, Gates and Jobs put a personal computer on every desk. The power was distributed. Then, the internet came along, and the browser became the most popular application in the world. The power moved back onto the server, the cloud became king. Now, that pendulum is swinging back.
This article is a first look at the local-first movement, and the new technologies embedding feature-rich data storage options directly into web browsers.
PGLite: The database in your browser
The modern browser is a beast, the result of years of intensive development and real-world testing. Today’s browser typically runs on a very capable machine. Yet, like a pauper, it must ask the server every time it wants some data. Browser state is just a temporary shadow, eradicated every time the screen refreshes. The loading spinner, the UI waterfall, the click-and-wait; these are all effects of our ongoing dependency on the back end for persistent state.