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Linux @lemmy.ml

eyekay @lemmy.world

1y ago

I made an app to install websites as desktop applications on Linux

flathub.org Install Web Apps on Linux | Flathub

Install websites as apps

Install Web Apps on Linux | Flathub

28 comments

So.. does it block Ads ?
- Doesn't appear to.
  But looks like even GNOME Web supports extensions now. So no reason that something like uBlock origin couldn't be implemented right?
  
  IIRC extensions are sadly not a part of stable Gnome Web yet.
  
  When I last tried it (around the time that article was posted, could've improved since), you needed to mess with gconf to enable the feature, which was for good reason because the compatibility was abysmal (ublock origin did not work and neither did dark reader or violentmonkey or really any extension I wanted to use).
  
  Adblocking is built in.

What browser engine does it use? And what happens if links are clicked? Can we specify which browser and profile is opened?
- WebKit apparently

For whatever it is worth Linux mint comes with onde of those already bundled https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager
- You right.
- Which allows you to freely choose any of your installed browsers, the menu category to place it under, the icon and any optional extra parameters.
  It's actually amazing, I use this to separate logins and addons for online services I use often!

Remember Firefox’s SSB that got removed before anyone knew about it since no one was using it, since it was behind a about:config flag, that users didn’t know about so they didn’t use it so Fx removed it? Weird-ass circular logic from Mozilla. I would have loved that PWA feature.
- Currently I'm using ungoogled-chromium on Linux just for PWA because of this decision made by Mozilla 😔
  
  Well don't, use Mint's Web Apps application, instead.

Is this any different from creating an icon which opens the website in a browser?

There is also this new rust/cosmic app: https://github.com/elevenhsoft/WebApps

Nice, this could especially be important in the Linux Mobile space for things like https://windy.com and https://web.pulsepoint.org and the scanner radio and other similar websites

Is this doing something similar to Mint's web apps? Great to have as flatpak regardless 👍

So like Mozilla Prism?
- Do you mean Webrunner, or Chromeless?
- It's Prism still around? I used it back in the day but I thought it had been discontinued.
  
  Nah, it is disconinued since many years, I thought it was kinda neat at first, but realized it would be faster to just use the full firefox browser instead.
- Yes
- Or Nativefier (which uses electron) but with a nice GUI.
  
  Nativefier was great. I recall that project struggling at the end really needing funding.

Cool. I currently use Ferdium, but this seems like a much more lightweight alternative as it doesn't ship its own Electron or whatever.
- I was thinking exactly that yesterday, I looked for a way to have few web apps without using ferdium.

This is really cool, it would be nice to have some quick options like start minimized or minimize to tray.

28 comments