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Show HN: Creating Custom Ubuntu Web Link App

33 points by vackosar 9y ago

roryisok 9y ago
This reminds me of Mozilla prism, which I think is discontinued now. I always liked having a separate window and process for gmail that wouldn't close if my browser crashed
JepZ 9y ago
Well, I don't know the Ubuntu specific part, but in Chrome with KDE you can simply click (probably works with other desktop environments too): Menu -> Tools -> Add to desktop Et voilà, you have an app with a separate profile in your KDE menu. For example, that is the way I use https://draw.io https://draw.io Didn't know through that it was so easy to get it working with FF too. Thanks :-)
- vackosar 9y ago
  That doesn't give you the sandboxing i.e. if you were signed to Google you will be able to still access it from the new app. update: But thanks anyways, I added a note and thanks on this.
- Jaruzel 9y ago
  I run WhatsApp, Messenger, and and couple of Slack channels, as separate 'applications' by using the '--app=<url>' when launching Chrome. However they are not sandboxed. Chromium can be run in portable mode, so I guess you could sandbox apps by having separate side-by-side Chromium installs. That said, this tool is probably easier to use.
  - mikewhy 9y ago
    Do the --profile-directory / --user-data-dir flags help here?
    - vackosar 9y ago
      Yes, the page suggests to sandbox using -user-data-dir.
    - JepZ 9y ago
      I am wondering whats the difference. So far I was able to find this explaining the flags: profile-directory: // Selects directory of profile to associate with the first browser launched. [1] user-data-dir: // Specifies the user data directory, which is where the browser will look for all of its state. [2] But to be honest I am not sure I understand that completely. I mean there is also some documentation stating that the user-data-dir contains profile data[3]. Does anybody what the actual difference is? [1]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#702 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome... [2]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#835 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome... [3]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/user_data_dir.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs...

33 points by vackosar 9y ago

This reminds me of Mozilla prism, which I think is discontinued now. I always liked having a separate window and process for gmail that wouldn't close if my browser crashed

JepZ 9y ago

Well, I don't know the Ubuntu specific part, but in Chrome with KDE you can simply click (probably works with other desktop environments too): Menu -> Tools -> Add to desktop Et voilà, you have an app with a separate profile in your KDE menu. For example, that is the way I use https://draw.io https://draw.io Didn't know through that it was so easy to get it working with FF too. Thanks :-)

vackosar 9y ago
That doesn't give you the sandboxing i.e. if you were signed to Google you will be able to still access it from the new app. update: But thanks anyways, I added a note and thanks on this.
Jaruzel 9y ago
I run WhatsApp, Messenger, and and couple of Slack channels, as separate 'applications' by using the '--app=<url>' when launching Chrome. However they are not sandboxed. Chromium can be run in portable mode, so I guess you could sandbox apps by having separate side-by-side Chromium installs. That said, this tool is probably easier to use.
- mikewhy 9y ago
  Do the --profile-directory / --user-data-dir flags help here?
  - vackosar 9y ago
    Yes, the page suggests to sandbox using -user-data-dir.
  - JepZ 9y ago
    I am wondering whats the difference. So far I was able to find this explaining the flags: profile-directory: // Selects directory of profile to associate with the first browser launched. [1] user-data-dir: // Specifies the user data directory, which is where the browser will look for all of its state. [2] But to be honest I am not sure I understand that completely. I mean there is also some documentation stating that the user-data-dir contains profile data[3]. Does anybody what the actual difference is? [1]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#702 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome... [2]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#835 https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome... [3]: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/user_data_dir.md https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs...