By Dakshitaa Babu, Security Researcher, SquareX
In a candid letter that Joshua Miller, CEO of Arc Browser, wrote to the community, he revealed a truth the tech industry has been dancing around: “the dominant operating system on desktop wasn’t Windows or macOS anymore — it was the browser.”
The evidence is everywhere — cloud revenue surging year over year, breakout startups like Figma proudly proclaiming they’ll “meet us in the browser,” entire workflows from crypto to enterprise SaaS existing solely in browser tabs. The browser is where human productivity happens. It’s where we work, collaborate, learn, and increasingly, where AI agents will fundamentally change how we process information.
Despite becoming the most critical piece of software in our lives, Chrome and Safari remain essentially unchanged since their inception, creating a void between the browser’s central importance and the attention it receives as infrastructure.
This void is exactly what Arc tried to fill. Here was a team that dared to reimagine this ubiquitous software we live in daily, only to discover that innovation in this space comes with a price tag most companies can’t afford. Through Miller’s honest revelations about browser development, maintenance hurdles, and the painful reasons behind Arc’s pivot to Dia, we learn a profound lesson about browser security that every enterprise should understand.
The Struggle of Adopting a New Browser
Miller’s team built what many considered a superior browser experience. They had passionate users who loved Arc’s innovative features. Tech Twitter sang their praises. Yet they still couldn’t overcome the fundamental physics of software adoption.
“Switching browsers is a big ask”
— Joshua Miller, CEO, The Browser Company
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