I would just like to add that there are concrete examples of websites that abuse JavaScript for various reasons, such as:
1. Websites that use JavaScript to provide annoying behaviour to the user, e.g. popups, trying to prevent the user from leaving the page 2. Websites that create misleading (and potentially malicious) popups that look like a desktop UI (usually Windows) to trick the user 3. Websites that use JavaScript to change the webpage behaviour to collect data from the user in a way that they would not reasonably expect (such as Facebook collecting data typed in forms before the user submits the form, collecting data on when the user hovers over certain page elements and rewriting URLs onclick to track which external links the user clicks without the user noticing) 4. Websites that use JavaScript for 'fingerprinting' the user (also note that, paradoxically, not running JavaScript makes a user more unique) I entirely agree with onpon's point that JavaScript isn't fit for many purposes of typical web browsing, i.e. reading documents, viewing images, watching videos etc. which can (now) be provided with standalone HTML. As a side note, I think the same is also true for cookies, although this isn't a freedom issue but a privacy issue. I think that web browsing that involves client-side web applications is typically separate enough that it could be provided as separate applications or as user scripts. Given the popularity of add-ons when Firefox was released and the popularity of mobile apps, I don't think this approach is entirely unrealistic either. Although I'm not entirely familiar with userscripts.org (I know about Greasemonkey but never used many scripts) I think the way forward would be to create user scripts for all of the common proprietary scripts that are in use today, e.g. Google reCAPTCHA (used on many websites and Cloudflare), Disqus (used for comments), and popular software packages like Drupal and phpBB which already use free JavaScript, i.e. port to GM where possible and detect when the scripts should be used. The main issue would be the many websites use page-specific JavaScript which would be very tedious to replace with user scripts. Also, last time I checked there were some limitations in user scripts such as setting timer events that rely on JavaScript being enabled as a workaround. Anyway, just my thoughts. Andrew
