Web Apps Are Better Than No Apps

Re:Web Apps Are Better Than No Apps by jeroenhd on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @08:44AM (#37569145)

That's great, but I don't know any Electron app that needs file system or task bar access. Notifications are a solved problem already and installing web apps from the browser is just a click away in all browsers (except Firefox), after which they run completely offline.

Chrome added a file system API for some reason, but every Electron based application I've used just used the standard <input type=file> prompt and it worked absolutely fine. Even things like live screen recording and P2P VoIP can be done from the browser now.

I'm sure there are plenty of applications that need Electron, but I'm having a hard time coming up with any.

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Re:Web Apps Are Better Than No Apps by jasode on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @09:08AM (#37569423)

>That's great, but I don't know any Electron app that needs file system or task bar access.

I first ran Zulip chat client in a Chrome web browser tab. But I often missed replying to new messages because I often forgot to cycle over to the Zulip tab to check for them.

After a few days of fighting that limitation, I gave up on Zulip in the web browser tab and installed the desktop version of Zulip (Electron runtime). Now new unread messages trigger a red dot on the taskbar. The desktop version is just easier to use.

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Re:Web Apps Are Better Than No Apps by jeroenhd on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @08:56AM (#37583543)

Does Zulip not add these red dots to the favicon? Because every chat application I've used does. I've got a bunch of them pinned exactly for this purpose.

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Re:Web Apps Are Better Than No Apps by terpimost on Wednesday September 20, 2023 @09:03AM (#37583619)

There is unread counter in the favicon

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