[GUIDE] Creating native applications for web-apps on Linux

1

StackBrowser

Stack (Website, Demo Video): Extremely intriguing browser. They plan launch in Q4 2022 (roadmap). They will be a free browser but with a Pro subscription for people who want to do live collaboration where other people can work with your tabs over the internet. The thing is, it organizes websites as stacked tiles, and looks extremely beautiful. They'll be on Linux too. I don't think it will be able to launch specific sites as desktop launchers though, but I may want this browser for myself so I signed up for their waiting list for private testing before public launch... It looks great.

#macOS #SaaS #Tech 20 social mentions

2

Rambox

Rambox (Website): It's a freemium app which lets you pin multiple websites to a sidebar. Clean GUI. But I don't see any advantages compared to the free alternatives.

#Unified Communications #Digital Workplace #Digital Workspace Organizer 12 social mentions

3

Franz

Franz (Website, GitHub): Multi-service browser. Requires payment to get rid of ads/waiting screens, so it's out of the question. Doesn't seem to have any advantages compared to the free alternatives.

#Group Chat & Notifications #Messaging #Communication 28 social mentions

4

Nativeifier

Nativefier (GitHub): Totally free and open source, and actively developed. It's a command-line nodejs-based tool which you simply give a website, and it automatically creates an Electron wrapper for it and gives you the native launcher. The downsides are pretty obvious: You have to manually update the wrapper all the time by re-running the command. There's no way to manage all your installed/created web-apps, etc. But overall it's a decent solution, which also has some advanced features such as CSS/JS injection.

#Development Tools #Group Chat & Notifications #Mac 65 social mentions

5

Ferdi

Ferdi (Website, GitHub): Free fork of Franz. Announced on June 11, 2022 that "There will be no further updates to Ferdi. 🏄‍♂️" but that tweet is now deleted and the repo is updating again... But they've disabled the issue tracker behind a $9/month paywall.

#Messaging #Group Chat & Notifications #Productivity 25 social mentions

6

Firework

Firework (Website): Looks like it integrates well with the desktop. Makes desktop launchers per-app. Supports web notifications. Supports alt-tabbing between the apps. But the free version only lets you make 2 apps, and you have to subscribe to get more. And the website is full of weird, non-native grammar.

#Productivity #Web Browsers #Apps 1 social mentions

7

Ferdium

Ferdium (Website, GitHub): The community has forked Ferdi and continued the work. This is the one I'd pick if I wanted a Franz/Ferdi-based "multi-service" system. None of these let you make desktop launchers though.

#Messaging #Group Chat & Notifications #Productivity 25 social mentions