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I'm the OP, I use a lot of PWAs. My main machine is a Surface Pro X and I don't have native apps (as in native aarch64 binaries) for many of the things I'd like

I'm the OP, I use a lot of PWAs. My main machine is a Surface Pro X and I don't have native apps (as in native aarch64 binaries) for many of the things I'd like to use. So, I'm using PWAs for Instagram, Twitter, Kindle, Pinafore (mastodon client), Spotify, and some of my own. I was developing a feed reader that was supposed to be a client-side-only PWA but that's tricky.

alkonaut 7y ago
What is spotify pwa offering that is an improvement over their regular web app? Is it offline streaming (downloaded playlists)?
- soapdog 7y ago
  Their regular web app is a pwa... thats the beauty of it. PWAs are not different offer, they are just enhancement on top of web apps. Good PWAs are invisible.
andrewrothman 7y ago
Off topic, but how is this experience using the Surface Pro X as a PWA machine? Does Windows / PWAs work well in tablet form? I was thinking of switching to a similar setup and using it essentially as you describe. Seems like it could be a really lightweight and simple computing environment similar to Chromebooks but still allows you to run traditional Windows apps as well if you need.
- soapdog 7y ago
  I really like it but I wish Microsoft would support FOSS developers better and provide more support and incentive for them to port more developer tools. There are almost no native aarch64 programming languages for Windows 10. If you keep yourself inside WSL then you're good to go because Linux under aarch64 is quite complete. On the windows side of things you'll probably running a lot of 32bits x86 apps. Which is one of the reasons I like PWAs, they are ISA independent and are working pretty well here. Unfortunately Firefox doesn't support an add to homescreen feature on the desktop, so I used Edge to do it for the apps I want to have a nice icon for (such as spotify). If you're going to use it much like a chromebook then it might be a tad too expensive to be justifiable. I don't regret buying mine at all, I really like it, but I'm sure they'll release cheaper ARM64 Surfaces soon, I'm betting on a Surface Go with ARM64 at some point.
xingyzt 7y ago
Do you know a PWA for Kindle? Their browser-based reader hasn't been updated for quite a while.
- soapdog 7y ago
  Their Kindle Cloud Reader is better than the native windows app IMO. I don't know when it was last updated, I first used it this year.
  - xingyzt 7y ago
    The Cloud Reader isn't a PWA. It's only available as a website and a Chrome OS app. Its UI is miles behind the Kindle apps on Android and iOS, which have better footnote support and font settings.
    - soapdog 7y ago
      That is true but have you seen the windows app, the one they preferred to discontinue? It was awful.

alkonaut 7y ago

What is spotify pwa offering that is an improvement over their regular web app? Is it offline streaming (downloaded playlists)?

soapdog 7y ago
Their regular web app is a pwa... thats the beauty of it. PWAs are not different offer, they are just enhancement on top of web apps. Good PWAs are invisible.

andrewrothman 7y ago

Off topic, but how is this experience using the Surface Pro X as a PWA machine? Does Windows / PWAs work well in tablet form? I was thinking of switching to a similar setup and using it essentially as you describe. Seems like it could be a really lightweight and simple computing environment similar to Chromebooks but still allows you to run traditional Windows apps as well if you need.

soapdog 7y ago
I really like it but I wish Microsoft would support FOSS developers better and provide more support and incentive for them to port more developer tools. There are almost no native aarch64 programming languages for Windows 10. If you keep yourself inside WSL then you're good to go because Linux under aarch64 is quite complete. On the windows side of things you'll probably running a lot of 32bits x86 apps. Which is one of the reasons I like PWAs, they are ISA independent and are working pretty well here. Unfortunately Firefox doesn't support an add to homescreen feature on the desktop, so I used Edge to do it for the apps I want to have a nice icon for (such as spotify). If you're going to use it much like a chromebook then it might be a tad too expensive to be justifiable. I don't regret buying mine at all, I really like it, but I'm sure they'll release cheaper ARM64 Surfaces soon, I'm betting on a Surface Go with ARM64 at some point.

xingyzt 7y ago

Do you know a PWA for Kindle? Their browser-based reader hasn't been updated for quite a while.

soapdog 7y ago
Their Kindle Cloud Reader is better than the native windows app IMO. I don't know when it was last updated, I first used it this year.
- xingyzt 7y ago
  The Cloud Reader isn't a PWA. It's only available as a website and a Chrome OS app. Its UI is miles behind the Kindle apps on Android and iOS, which have better footnote support and font settings.
  - soapdog 7y ago
    That is true but have you seen the windows app, the one they preferred to discontinue? It was awful.