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Claude for Desktop

claude.ai

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Re: Claude for Desktop

#51

Post by tiltowait »

__jonas wrote: post #48
Nesco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 - ...

The whole electron app uses less RAM than the page opened as a PWA? That’s surprising to me, how come? I somehow thought Safari was more memory efficient than Chromium

I was surprised, too, so I just checked. Sure enough, https://claude.ai takes 663MB.

I wonder if there’s an architectural difference that allows the Electron app to be more lean?

(Note I didn’t download the new app, just installed the PWA, so I didn’t verify those numbers.)

Re: Claude for Desktop

#53

Post by ethbr1 »

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

Also data mining! :)

Re: Claude for Desktop

#54

Post by tiltowait »

result2vino wrote: post #39
hulitupulii wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!”

Electron apps are terrible at following platform conventions. Scrolling is wrong, menus are wrong, etc. There’s plenty to dislike.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#55

Post by runjake »

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.

> For anything more involved, I want a tab and an URL.

Why, exactly?

Re: Claude for Desktop

#56

Post by skydhash »

Wissenschafter wrote: post #50
skydhash wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more like 400MB due to how they're packaged. And when you could have it run with 10x to 20x less RAM, it just scream "we don't care about you". Not everyone have 64GB RAM and 22 cores of CPU in their laptop. It's like using a semi-truck (with the trailer attached) to go buy groceries 100 meters away.

The fact people prefer webapps over native locally run software because of '400MB' honestly pisses me off it's so stupidly trivial.

It's not for the storage or ram space. It's for being inefficient which always making me doubt about the company culture. If you want native capabilities so much, just build a proper software for the platform. If VLC and Calibre can do cross platform, you can do it too.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#57

Post by triyambakam »

runjake wrote: post #55
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.

> For anything more involved, I want a tab and an URL. Why, exactly?

Probably for bookmarking or working iteratively over different sessions on the interaction and allowing more than one session at a time.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#58

Post by Shawnecy »

result2vino wrote: post #35
politelemon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

That's an awfully cynical take to call Linux desktop a dumpster fire.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#59

Post by suby »

result2vino wrote: post #35
politelemon wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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]

Linux Desktop isn't perfect, but it's in no way a dumpster fire. I'm much happier using Linux than any other viable alternative. Your experience clearly differs, but I personally have very few complaints at this point. Calling it a dumpster fire is extreme hyperbole.

I'm hoping they're incentivized to support Linux just based on the developer market share of Linux. The StackOverflow developer survey looks like it unfortunately allows people to choose multiple options which devalues the results and obscures the actual numbers, but at the top level 27% of developers are using Ubuntu desktop.

Re: Claude for Desktop

#60

Post by vunderba »

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?

I like LibreChat a great deal, but its pretty heavy-weight (over a more bundled solution like Jan) in terms of spinning up a bunch of docker containers (meilisearch, mongo, vector db, etc.)
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