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Comment by eeZi

This one I'm fine with since WebAssembly is a worthy replacement, but I'm still annoyed at Google discontinuing Chrome Apps.

Some examples of specialized apps I use all the time that would require a native app otherwise:

- Signal Desktop

- TeamViewer

- Postman

- SSH client

- Cleanflight drone configuration tool

It was one of the best things that happened to Linux desktops in a long time and removing it hurts users and makes them less secure.

Now everyone is moving to Electron and instead of one Chrome instance, I'm now running five which use more than one GB of RAM each. Much less secure, too, since each has its own auto-updater or repository and instead of being sandboxed by Chrome's sandbox, they're all running with full permissions.

It also means I cannot longer use Signal Desktop on my work device since installing native apps is forbidden for good reasons, while Chrome Apps are okay.

It also hurts Chrome OS users since Chrome Apps are being abandoned in favor of Electron. It also makes it less useful for developers to create Chrome Apps since the market is much smaller.

Since Chrome Apps continue to be available on Chrome OS, I'm considering separating that functionality into a stand-alone runtime or making a custom build for Linux. Anyone wants to help with that?

parent eeZi 9 years ago

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