You’re not wrong.

Realistically, there’s a bit of a nuance. Many modern web apps have different components that aren’t HTML. You don’t need HTML for a component. And those non-HTML components can provide the consistency they need. Sometimes, that’s consistency for how to get the data. Sometimes, that’s consistency for how to display the data. For displaying, each component basically has its own CSS, but it doesn’t need to. A CSS class isn’t required.

Tailwind isn’t meant to be a component system, It’s meant to supplement one. If you’re writing CSS’s components, it looks horrible. If you’re writing components at CSS that needs a foundation of best practices, it works pretty decent. They’re still consistency. They’re still components. They’re just not centered around HTML/CSS anymore. It doesn’t have to be.

Sematically, it is still worse HTML. Realistically, it’s often faster to iterate on, easier to avoid breakage: especially as the project becomes larger. Combine that with the code being more easily copied and pasted. It can be a tough combo to beat. It’s probably just a stepping stone to whatever’s next.

Universities were already locking down their PCs in the 90’s, at least those with competent IT departments - BIOS password, locked boot menu, Windows 2000 with restricted user accounts.

You need to make up your mind on what time period you’re trying to use. 90s? 2000? Before you were talking about Windows 95.

But notice, you’re talking about universities: we’re talking about children under 18. Those computers were not as locked down. That has changed from the 90s. The security of the 90s (especially before TCP/IP was standard) was different than 2000-2010 security, which was different than 2010s+ security. Yet, you’re trying to claim it hasn’t changed? That’s so inaccurate it’s laughable.

Even in the Linux world, Pre-IP vs Slow Internet vs Fast Internet vs Post-sudo security models have changed a lot. I’d be skeptical of anyone trying to argue that the security and lockdown of these computers has not changed in 30 years. Is that your argument? If not, why did you start with “Windows 95?”

If you don’t do that, your every PC will have 15 copies of Counter Strike and a bunch of viruses in one week.

And? People still get viruses. People still install games if they can. The tools to do that on PCs are far better at trying to stop those than 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. Chromebooks are even more effective than those tools at locking them down to be unusable.

Chromebooks (and laptops in general) are way cheaper now than PCs were back then, so again, you need to buy your own and install a proper OS, the situation did not really change.

Before: if you wanted to do work at home, you or your family had to buy a computer. Kids (might) need to convince their parents to do experiments, but it was far easier to do that to convince a school administration.

Today? What families have a “family computer?”

Kids get a phone, they might get a tablet, and if they get a computer, its the school one. The need for a family computer has basically gone. All of the computers are locked down. Google happens to make locked down OSes for their replacements: Chromebooks, Phones, and Tablets. Yet, according to you, the requirements hasn’t changed. Yet, from a child’s perspective: they’ll probably never get the opportunity to play with a non-locked down computer.

You seemed to miss their argument. Those were the standard in 1995, before OSes had really integrated the internet. Haivng a floppy disk, discarding wifi, and having drivers auto-loaded/discovered automatically (or not needed at all) are independent developments. Even when Chromebooks started becoming standard: using drivers from physical disks were rare, Windows could automatically find and update drivers (how well, eh), WiFI existed and was faster than most internets. You could install Linux and it would mostly work, provided your hardware wasn’t too new.

The actual argument chromebooks are contributing to tech illteracy because, they’re:

• Locked-down: devices that most can’t repair or customize, especially if given out by a school or organization. Locking them down is a feature.
• Below cost: they’re the cheapest devices available, because Google makes more money from data.

Organizations buy these devices because they’re cheap (than cost), lock them down, and those locked-down devices become the only computer for most students. While it’s technically possible to install Linux, these users can’t: it’s not their devices: the organizations bought them because they were cheap and easily locked down for kids. If these are their main device, and they not allowed (either technically or by policy) to install another OS: where will they learn tech literacy? Not on their phone, not on their tablet, and not on their school-issued laptop.

They’ve been locked into a room and people wonder why they don’t know how to interact outside. You’re arguing that the room today is better than the one in 1995. That’s true, that doesn’t change the argument:

1. Maybe they shouldn’t be locked into the room.
2. Maybe it shouldn’t be cheaper to lock the room than to let them go outside.
3. Maybe we need to do more to help them see outside the room.