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Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

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Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#181

Post by andybak »

jmull wrote: post #158
crazygringo wrote: post #92

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

I agree that this was a terrible idea from day one and am glad it has been killed and will soon be buried. But this: "typical Google cancelling a product" is still an important message. Google routinely floats out APIs, services, and platforms and encourages their use despite fatal flaws that mean they are doomed from day one. And some developers fall for it and later have to pay the price. Hopefully, the repeated wa…

> But this: "typical Google cancelling a product" is still an important message.

But it's one that appears with such regularity in HN comments that it drowns out all other discussion.

I've frequently seen otherwise interesting posts related to Google derailed into yet another pile on - or even worse full of people that think they are being witty by posting "how soon before it's cancelled?"

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#182

Post by miohtama »

magila wrote: post #146
Andrex wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://developers.chrome.com/apps/migration Everything except advanced File System APIs are supported by PWAs, including Bluetooth through the Web Bluetooth API. [1] The replacement Native File System API is in origin trial and is pre-standardization, however. [2] [1] https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/07/interact-w... [2] https://web.dev/native-file-system/

Another big gap is the sockets API. Chrome apps have direct access to TCP and UDP sockets. PWAs can't have this for obvious reasons.

Does this mean no longer SSH terminals for Chromebooks?

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#183

Post by spankalee »

falcolas wrote: post #119
crazygringo wrote: post #92

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

A chrome app that people use? There’s a lot of hobby flight controllers which are/were programmed using a Chrome app. There was no alternative. And since most web apps can’t get access to the host USB (webUSB seems to exist, but still seems pretty nascent), that whole system is probably going to have to find a new app deployment method.

Web USB is going to more widely supported than Chrome's proprietary USB API. A Chrome app doesn't have to be written, its use of proprietray APIs just needs to be replace with the equivalent standard ones.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#184

Post by spankalee »

wazoox wrote: post #13

Typical Google move. I have a Chromebook. It was listed on the models that would support Android app, this support never came (it's still "planned", 2 years later...). Support for Linux apps didn't come, either. So now I suppose my Chromebook will be soon a useless brick. Thanks, Google. Got the message, I'll never use any product with your badge again.

How in the world would it be a brick if you move some proprietary Chrome apps to PWAs?

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#185

Post by winternett »

jmull wrote: post #158
crazygringo wrote: post #92

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

I agree that this was a terrible idea from day one and am glad it has been killed and will soon be buried. But this: "typical Google cancelling a product" is still an important message. Google routinely floats out APIs, services, and platforms and encourages their use despite fatal flaws that mean they are doomed from day one. And some developers fall for it and later have to pay the price. Hopefully, the repeated wa…

This is probably going to happen and soon... And then next they'll kill off extensions, and then Chrome will become the next "Internet Explorer"...

One of the things that people will take for granted is the effectiveness of extensions that work as Ad blockers which brought online tracking to a grinding halt. Google because of their advertising services has always wanted to suppress the ability of people in blocking ads. Most of the changes they make to Chrome, now that they have captured majority of the market share are geared towards generating profit, and preserving their status a dominating company.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#187

Post by ericabiz »

jcastro wrote: post #133
crazygringo wrote: post #92

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

Anyone know the status of being able to install PWAs on the desktop? The reason I use chrome apps is to have "Gmail" as an application on my desktop so I can alt-tab to it, put it on my dock, etc and treat it as a normal app instead of a tab.

If you are a Windows or Mac user, third-party apps like Kiwi for Gmail support this functionality (plus support multiple accounts.)

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#188

Post by zelon88 »

wazoox wrote: post #13

Typical Google move. I have a Chromebook. It was listed on the models that would support Android app, this support never came (it's still "planned", 2 years later...). Support for Linux apps didn't come, either. So now I suppose my Chromebook will be soon a useless brick. Thanks, Google. Got the message, I'll never use any product with your badge again.

And on top of that you only get about 4-5 years of security updates from Google on a Chromebook before they give up on you. [1] That's should be an embarrassingly short amount of time even for a computer product, but alas.... Google doesn't care and most Chromebook users are none the wiser. I wonder how many would choose differently if they knew that Microsoft offers a bare minimum of 10 years of support on their products. How sad is it that "Embrace, extend, extinguish" provides support for their products for twice as long as Google does?

[1] https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#189

Post by ac29 »

pjmlp wrote: post #104
mattlondon wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok sure - you're welcome to your opinion. I feel like expecting endless maintenance builds from Google for any manufacturer's hardware forever is a bit of an optimistic expectation though, especially for old models. They guarantee at least 5 years support (1) for updates which I don't think is unreasonable considering that they are so cheap. If that is not long enough for you then I guess you are not the target audie…

My Asus laptop bought with Windows 7 on it back in 2009, is running the latest Windows 10 version. Both Microsoft and Asus keep having updates for it. Google just needs to actually care.

The driver model for Windows is different than Linux, though. Realistically, most Linux drivers need to be open source and maintained as part of the kernel to continue working, whereas Windows offers a stable driver interface so its not uncommon at all to have drivers that haven't been updated in many years work just fine on current Windows releases.

Re: Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used

#190

Post by tmpz22 »

crazygringo wrote: post #92

First of all, this was announced more than 3 years ago, and it still won't happen for another 2.5 years. Second of all, this should be treated as good news for the HN crowd: Google is transitioning from a proprietary, Chrome-only app model to the open-standard, PWA model. Who doesn't support that? There are a bunch of "typical Google cancelling a product" comments here. But for real, I simply cannot imagine any Chrom…

The problem is the Google Brand approach of replacing a used consumer product with a backwards incompatible replacement and forcing the expense/risk of a port onto the end-user as if they have the same resources as Google does.

There will be a lot of cases where this approach is reasonable. But because Google has built a strong reputation of constantly doing it, each event will be a new outrage causing more and more churn. You reap what you sow and all that.

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