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This seems like a potentially very useful app, bordering on capturing the idea that I've described on HN several times (recently here [1]). That said, I don't

This seems like a potentially very useful app, bordering on capturing the idea that I've described on HN several times (recently here [1]). That said, I don't use Gmail. I'm forced to have a Google account since my employer uses G-Suite, but I pretty much don't use their apps and Google is not what I would use Station for. I'm disappointed to see that this is so Google-oriented. I get that it's an early MVP and a work in progress, but seriously. From the looks of it, Station is entirely app-oriented. It would be disappointing to me if you could only choose from Station's own roster of apps. Back in the day, there was a macOS app that could create a desktop app from any web site — basically starting a special version of Firefox in its own instance — so that you could run, say, Github as a desktop app. It makes sense because obviously web sites can be considered "apps". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18054150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18054150

frereubu 8y ago
In terms of that macOS app for turning a website into a desktop app, there's still Fluid - https://www.fluidapp.com/ https://www.fluidapp.com/ - although it uses Safari, not Firefox.
jberthom 8y ago
We've limited to Google login indeed as it was the first version of the app and we wanted to make it easy for as many users to sign up and get started on Station. We will very soon release a username/password login which will answer your concern. Yes I think see which app you are referring to, it's Fluid app (and there's been others of the same type since then). It was one of our inspirations in fact. I think that type of app is useful if what you are looking for is to turn a few specific websites into native apps in your dock (Github is a good example). But it does not make it easier to switch between those apps, essentially it just encapsulates a webview into an OS window. What we want to do is go much further and add extra functionalities that make it feel like you are really consuming a native app (ex: searching for information across all your apps, quickly accessing various parts of this app, giving an overview of notifications from all your apps, etc.). Checked your link, it's really interesting actually. It really goes along the line of how we think about Station. When you say Google Doc is not something that works well as a tab, I think it's true for a lot of SaaS applications. They've leveraged the browser to work because it guaranteed massive adoption and instantly worked cross platform, however browsers were built to - as its name indicates - browse the web, mostly reading content. If you can offer a tailored experience for each doc, chat, note taking app, etc. that you use on a daily basis, I think there is no reason why you wouldn't switch from the browse. To use another analogy: the same way you prefer to use the Gmail app on your smartphone than go on gmail.com on your mobile browser.

frereubu 8y ago

In terms of that macOS app for turning a website into a desktop app, there's still Fluid - https://www.fluidapp.com/ https://www.fluidapp.com/ - although it uses Safari, not Firefox.

jberthom 8y ago

We've limited to Google login indeed as it was the first version of the app and we wanted to make it easy for as many users to sign up and get started on Station. We will very soon release a username/password login which will answer your concern. Yes I think see which app you are referring to, it's Fluid app (and there's been others of the same type since then). It was one of our inspirations in fact. I think that type of app is useful if what you are looking for is to turn a few specific websites into native apps in your dock (Github is a good example). But it does not make it easier to switch between those apps, essentially it just encapsulates a webview into an OS window. What we want to do is go much further and add extra functionalities that make it feel like you are really consuming a native app (ex: searching for information across all your apps, quickly accessing various parts of this app, giving an overview of notifications from all your apps, etc.). Checked your link, it's really interesting actually. It really goes along the line of how we think about Station. When you say Google Doc is not something that works well as a tab, I think it's true for a lot of SaaS applications. They've leveraged the browser to work because it guaranteed massive adoption and instantly worked cross platform, however browsers were built to - as its name indicates - browse the web, mostly reading content. If you can offer a tailored experience for each doc, chat, note taking app, etc. that you use on a daily basis, I think there is no reason why you wouldn't switch from the browse. To use another analogy: the same way you prefer to use the Gmail app on your smartphone than go on gmail.com on your mobile browser.