Same here, was skeptical at first but then I used a web app that supports WebUSB to configure my mechanical keyboard and it lets you flash the firmware right there from the browser and that’s pretty nice and convenient.

https://www.zsa.io/flash

Even before WebUSB, I was using ZSA Oryx to create my keyboard layout for my first ZSA keyboard. But back then I had to download the file and then flash it using a dedicated program on the computer. Now with WebUSB I could both create the layout for my new ZSA keyboard there, and flash it from there without any additional software other than a Chromium based desktop web browser.

This, more than ideology or security, is one of the main reasons I don't want WebUSB: fear that many hardware vendors will only support updates and configuration through a web app, that isn't guaranteed to remain online forever, may not be available to download and run locally, and may require installing otherwise undesirable firmware updates to maintain compatibility with available versions of the web app.

I have many expensive USB devices (cameras, musical instruments, audio and MIDI interfaces, a spectrometer) that are still useful despite being over a decade old; most will remain useful until the hardware fails. It'd be a shame if they required a long-lost web app to configure or control.

There is a host of software that only runs on Windows which can now run on any os with webusb. It's a glorious improvement

> I was rather hostile towards WebUSB/Bluetooth for ideological reasons, until I came across some cool apps […] which I would have found overkill to install a "hard App" for.

So, basically, you got seduced to loosen up your ideology a bit. You’re not alone. I likely would, too. What I would like to see instead of WebUSB is something akin to SOAP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP), but for USB, where device manufacturers provide a downloadable file that describes the interface of their device, and tools, including third party ones, can generate apps from those descriptions.

I think that would give us an easy way to talk to USB devices without having to rely on the forever presence and good intentions of a third party web service.

One thing that it wouldn’t allow is for a remote server to talk to a local USB device. That may be unfortunate for a few use cases, but I think overall that’s for the better.

> I would have found overkill to install a "hard App" for

Hope you enjoy that same sentiment is 20 years when the website to control/manage your device doesn't exist/was bought out/whatever.

WebUSB is the main way to flash GrapheneOS onto a phone.

Another possible use-case: allowing your peripherals to talk to cloud gaming computers - like, a nice HOTAS setup for flight simulator on GeforceNow.

It's fine as an extension, not so much as a default-enabled feature. We got the best outcome here.

Edit: Wait, no we didn't. Chrome added WebUSB support after all. Wtf I'm disabling that

I used it to side-load Android apps onto my Quest 3 so I could try Chromium on it