The thing with Javascript is that, although the language may suck, it is a great ecosystem and platform to build on. It's what Java always dreamed of: build once, run everywhere. Literally! (Well, except for Node, but mostly)

Don't think of Javascript as "the browser" since you've got browsers, Node, React Native, Electron, SmartTV, STB, Tizen, Xbox, PS, Wii, Switch (probably) etc.

If it was easy, Java was the closest thing we ever got to this sort of portability across platforms, except for web frontend and this is what killed it. Java also has a great ecosystem and platform, it's open source (well, kind of), backed by several big software companies and lacks most of the things those who hate Javascript has (i.e. static typing). If Sun/IBM released their own browser engine with Java, instead of those stupid Applets or letting Javascript be built, the world would be different today.

> But will we ever move away from it?

The sheer amount of money for this to be possible is unimaginable and I don't think anyone's budget would allow for this. Hell, Facebook decided to invest on React Native when they could have done other crazy stuff like launching their own browser with ObjectiveC support.

> Could Google or Mozilla build support for another language into their browsers while developers gradually move away from JS?

Their engines are open source, and if this was easy I'm sure as hell someone would already have <script src="text/brainfuck"> working. You're also forgetting about Opera here. Opera is big and although its browser is not on all PC's it's on almost lots of media devices out there. Except for LG, Samsung, Roku and Android, all SmartTVs ship with an Opera browser which is what's used to run YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, HBO, etc.

> Will developers be open to alternatives?

Sure, Dart had its time, and TypeScript is getting lots of traction right now. You also see people writing frontend code on .Net and Java.

> Will we finally standardize on a simpler set of tools and frameworks?

Although I understand the frustration Javascript may raise with its tools (grunt, gulp, bower, webpack, babel, react, angular, etc), I don't see other platforms any better. I'm sure most C#, Java, C++, C, iO developers can give you great examples of how those systems are also complex, with shared libraries, low quality tools, integration, system and API problems, etc. I've used many IDEs and build tools, but the level of fear I have of XCode of breaking is huge.

> Does WebAssembly solve this?

No. Although some crazy people may decide to port a UI toolkit (Qt? GTK? WxWidgets?) or write a new one, the complexities this introduces are not worth it, business wise. Also, I'm sure it will also bring its own subset of problems. I particularly see WebAssembly used for two things:

- Games.
- Stuff you don't want people to mingle with: DRM, banking, cryptography, etc.

Building a CRUD SPA in WebAssembly would be, IMO, a very stupid decision.

> Is TypeScript good enough?

Well, I work with quite a lot of people doing Javascript doing lots of FE projects and there isn't a big interest on it right now. Actually, Angular2 has been removed from any future projects roadmaps and we're moving to a React focused one. Thing with TS (or any other transpiling tool) is that, now you have to fight with TS problems and Javascript problems.