HACKER Q&A
📣 FerkiHN

Why don't browsers load websites directly in WASM?


I've been wondering — modern browsers are optimized to parse and run HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But what if a browser was built to load and run websites written directly in WebAssembly?

Wouldn’t this improve performance, startup speed, and reduce overhead from parsing multiple formats? Why hasn't anyone created a browser where the default language for sites is WASM?

Is it a technical limitation, security concern, or just lack of interest from the ecosystem?

I’d love to hear what the HN community thinks.


  👤 high_na_euv Accepted Answer ✓
Wasm as replacement for css and HTML? Thats what are you asking about?

👤 FerkiHN
I'm still exploring this idea and I know it's far from perfect, but I posted it here because HN is a great place for constructive feedback.

If this concept sounds interesting to you — even if you think it's flawed — I’d love to hear how you would improve or reshape it. Maybe there’s a better way to approach it, or a different angle I haven’t considered.

Feel free to break it down, challenge it, or build on it. That's exactly what I'm here for


👤 FerkiHN
Please share your opinion.

👤 mmarian
Check Blazor WebAssembly: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/blazor/hosting...

From memory, initial page load times are slower


👤 palmfacehn

👤 theworIdismine
i don't think you understand what wasm does. it cannot substitute html because wasm and html do completely different things!! the web is not just about speed, people buy things because they are pretty too, not just because they are useful. if you need speed, you download a program.

and if you are passing your words through a llm before submitting them here, please stop, i'd rather see honest yet broken english