Claude for Desktop • Hacker News Board

Re: Claude for Desktop

#31

Post by stephencoyner » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:21 PM UTC

lambdaba wrote: post #25

I only use the chatgpt desktop app for quick throwaway interactions. For anything more involved, I want a tab and an URL. Perfect use case for a webapp, native is pointless for this, especially if it's just a webview.

Native desktop apps give these companies access to more system-level functions which will be super useful for...

- Voice dictation / interactions

- Agents accessing other applications and controlling your desktop

- Agents performing background tasks like continuous monitoring, periodic data processing, or ongoing analysis

I would expect to see these kind of features start to take off next year

Re: Claude for Desktop

#32

Post by lambdaba » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:24 PM UTC

stephencoyner wrote: post #31

lambdaba wrote: post #25

I only use the chatgpt desktop app for quick throwaway interactions. For anything more involved, I want a tab and an URL. Perfect use case for a webapp, native is pointless for this, especially if it's just a webview.

Native desktop apps give these companies access to more system-level functions which will be super useful for... - Voice dictation / interactions - Agents accessing other applications and controlling your desktop - Agents performing background tasks like continuous monitoring, periodic data processing, or ongoing analysis I would expect to see these kind of features start to take off next year

Oh I agree, but this is definitely not it, I don't understand why Anthropic released this, other than squatting the same keyboard shortcut the ChatGPT app uses, with no ability to change it :P.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#33

Post by tinyhouse » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:25 PM UTC

The main questions: Can this be used with no limit on file "uploads"?

Re: Claude for Desktop

#34

Post by stephencoyner » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:28 PM UTC

lambdaba wrote: post #32

stephencoyner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native desktop apps give these companies access to more system-level functions which will be super useful for... - Voice dictation / interactions - Agents accessing other applications and controlling your desktop - Agents performing background tasks like continuous monitoring, periodic data processing, or ongoing analysis I would expect to see these kind of features start to take off next year

Oh I agree, but this is definitely not it, I don't understand why Anthropic released this, other than squatting the same keyboard shortcut the ChatGPT app uses, with no ability to change it :P.

By not it, do you mean those features aren’t available yet, or you don’t see the value in them?

Re: Claude for Desktop

#35

Post by result2vino » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:28 PM UTC

politelemon wrote: post #28

latentcall wrote: post #21

No Linux, I should have expected that. Web works fine, but damn no Linux.

It's disappointing that these companies are perfectly happy to use it for their own wealth creation strategy, but have no interest in giving back and furthering the ecosystem.

[flagged]

Re: Claude for Desktop

#36

Post by result2vino » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

internet101010 wrote: post #23

Other than ease of set up, why would anybody use this over LibreChat, which allows you to plug in api keys for all services?

Other than ease of set up, why would any one use this over training their own large language model from scratch using magnets?

Re: Claude for Desktop

#37

Post by Nesco » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:30 PM UTC

Nesco wrote: post #30

On macOS, why have an electron app when you can add the webpage to the dock as a PWA?

Here is the comparison:

Claude Electron app vs Claude Safari PWA

Pros:

* Can be opened with a customizable shortcut

* Takes less RAM (400 MiB Cons:

* Needs to be downloaded

* Weight 150 MiB

* Slower to start

* Loose language localisation

* Loose Safari's capabilities:

  - Printing the content of the current page

  - Speech2Text

  - Accessibility

  - ...

Re: Claude for Desktop

#38

Post by whywhywhywhy » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

kennethwolters wrote: post #2

can someone tell me what the difference is to the webclient? Seems like a webview to me. No local caching/store.

There isn't one, it's just an Electron app that opens slower than the webpage and flashes white before it appears.

You'd think, a company that has such powerful AI and no restrictions on requests to it would be able to bash out truly native apps no rather than something that looks quite shoddily made, like making your electron app not flash white when in dark mode is amateur level stuff.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#39

Post by result2vino » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

hulitupulii wrote: post #27

yboris wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a simplistic (and I think erroneous) view of Electron! You can't spare 40mb of RAM?

Probably a mac user. Those devices are low in ram.

I use macOS and don’t really have complaints about the few Electron apps that I use daily.

“Electron bad!” is as much of a cargo culted snobby HN myth as “Macs have no RAM!”

Re: Claude for Desktop

#40

Post by pjmlp » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 6:32 PM UTC

yboris wrote: post #24

pjmlp wrote: post #10

An Electron app is anything but fast.

What a simplistic (and I think erroneous) view of Electron! You can't spare 40mb of RAM?

I already have a browser installed.

Apparently the developers couldn't get rid of turning the Web into ChromeOS.