I'd prefer to download a 100+Mb binary once versus downloading the 100+Mb web app a couple of times.

Blender is one of those applications which is meant for people spending countless hours in it. Installation convenience just doesn't count.

Do you think it's possible for a web app to utilize caching?

We may be in a position right now where WebGL is new-ish but this is changing and 5-10 years from now the difference between a native and webapp likely won't be much. It seems silly to argue that users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust to an application if they don't need to.

> users should go through an extra step / give large amounts of trust

If it's a webapp, then you have to trust that the application won't disappear overnight, or be changed it ways you don't like. If you have downloaded the software, you can continue to use it.

There are trade-offs in both directions.

Good point.

Caching is imperfect, and software does change from time to time.

WebGL is great, and can be used to great effect. Blender, at least since 2.8, is definitely exceeding whatever WebGL could provide.

What a useless question. Just in the segment of 3D art you have: 3DS Max, Maya, MODO, ZBrush, 3D Coat, Houdini and many many others, some of which are gigabyte large and nobody ever thought they should be served as web apps. People still use offline software without problems. Even developers use large IDEs or even code editors offline. It's not like you have to download it every time you use it. Loading and linking binaries is also orders of magnitude faster than fetching resources over HTTP and executing JS in the browser.

Yes a thousand times. I use Blender in a professional setting, and the way it works is you set your software up and you do not touch it in the middle of a production if you can help it at all. No upgrades to newer versions, and certainly you don't use webapps. The risk of something breaking to new bugs, backward incompatiblity or hosting unavailability is unacceptable.

Just as an anecdote: If the problem is anything non-trivial or anything with graphics, a web app would be a clear pass for me.

Gravit designer (designer.io) is a graphics app (photo, illustration, vector stuff) running performantly in The browser. It's a great example of how good a web app can be.

Many web apps I find terrible and I'm sure it uses a bunch more resources than it would need to, but it runs on my FOSS operating system of choice and really works quite well.

Do you think I want to download and execute binaries every time I start the program?