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Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

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Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#51

Post by Tiksi »

vbezhenar wrote: post #26

What I don't like is WebView distributed as a "native app". It's not native app and it's not something I want to install, don't cheat me. Webpages should stay in browser. I expect native app to be written with Objective C (OS X/iOS user here), having very low memory usage, fast startup and offline usage. Also I expect as much integration with the system, as possible, native controls (not that buggy emulation without…

You can launch chrome with

  google-chrome --app="http://app.com"
And get a frameless window.

Firefox used to have something like this, but it doesn't appear to work anymore. You can do

  firefox -chrome "file:///some/local/file.html"
But obviously that's not quite the same, and I believe is limited to local files.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#52

Post by hyperion2010 »

The alt-tab argument is a strong reminder for me that as good as tabbed browsing is compared to the old IE6 hell, tabs are an absolutely shit paradigm for window management, better than the windows task bar when you have 100 tabs open, but it is about time someone sat down and did real and serious UI research on how to deal with having 100s of windows open at the same time, because my solution of having 32 virtual desktops can't be it.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#53

Post by alagappanr »

This approach is probably in complete contrast to what Flipkart/Myntra have been doing in India. Both are widely used e-commerce websites that are going complete mobile-app only by killing even their desktop and mobile websites.

Two moves in completely different directions. Would be interesting to see the results down the line.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#54

Post by rtpg »

saurik wrote: post #8

> At Front for example, people using the desktop app spend on average 34% more time on the app that those using the web version. ...maybe I'm crazy, but the primary metric I would evaluate a tool designed to increase business productivity is not how much time I spend using it, and in fact would normally be summarized as the exact opposite of this metric...

You're making the assumption that the people accomplish the same time in the desktop version and the web version.

Given that the desktop version and the web versions are the same, the assumption is that both are at least similarly productive. Therefore the desktop version is actually helping people accomplish more (or it's more useful for high-usage people? Or it's just correlation)

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#55

Post by wingerlang »

stephenr wrote: post #37
zippergz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I hate about Slack. It feels like a webapp inside of a very thin wrapper.

This type of app really bites us (users) in the ass when we try things real Mac apps have done literally for decades - drag and drop. Drag a file expecting it to be accepted as an upload, but oh wait no, the web view navigated to view that file. And I have no back button so I have to quit the app.

CMD + arrow left works

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#56

Post by baddox »

zippergz wrote: post #31
vbezhenar wrote: post #26

What I don't like is WebView distributed as a "native app". It's not native app and it's not something I want to install, don't cheat me. Webpages should stay in browser. I expect native app to be written with Objective C (OS X/iOS user here), having very low memory usage, fast startup and offline usage. Also I expect as much integration with the system, as possible, native controls (not that buggy emulation without…

This is what I hate about Slack. It feels like a webapp inside of a very thin wrapper.

That's one of a large set of things I hate about Slack.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#57

Post by batou »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #52

The alt-tab argument is a strong reminder for me that as good as tabbed browsing is compared to the old IE6 hell, tabs are an absolutely shit paradigm for window management, better than the windows task bar when you have 100 tabs open, but it is about time someone sat down and did real and serious UI research on how to deal with having 100s of windows open at the same time, because my solution of having 32 virtual de…

Press alt twice and type in the title for a partial match of the window title. That is all I ask for.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#58

Post by tracker1 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #26

What I don't like is WebView distributed as a "native app". It's not native app and it's not something I want to install, don't cheat me. Webpages should stay in browser. I expect native app to be written with Objective C (OS X/iOS user here), having very low memory usage, fast startup and offline usage. Also I expect as much integration with the system, as possible, native controls (not that buggy emulation without…

In chrome I can create application shortcuts... and with browser notifications it pretty much just works. I usually have pandora and slack as application shortcuts that run in their own windows... it really doesn't bug me that they run in a browser... they work as I expect them to (though not in osx iirc). I agree that the thin wrappers are a little annoying...

On the flip side, though I really appreciate that I can create more feature rich applications with the likes of nwjs or electron. There's a lot of things you can do that go a fair bit beyond just web applications in a thin shell... though most of the better ones are app centric first, and web instance second.

I do wish someone would build a nice mail client for Chrome/ChromeOS though... That part really sucks imho. I mean there's a browser based SSH client for chrome, so it's entirely possible to do.

Re: Why we maintain desktop apps for OS X, Windows, and a web application

#59

Post by tracker1 »

incompatible wrote: post #48

"Once they find their place in the Windows Start menu or the Mac OS Dock, they are always visible." I don't think this is true anymore in Windows 8+. From my limited experience in using it, once you install something it disappears into a mass of icons and is never seen again. If you can remember the name you may be able to search for it.

Funny, but on windows/osx/ubuntu I tend to have a half dozen regularly used programs docked on the taskbar... anything else meta/win then type, and click on what I want in the list... so having apps disappear isn't so bad, except maybe for branding, and when I can't find "that app with the stupid name that does X, that I only need twice a year."
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