alt Hacker NewsI don't know, this seems like an idea that maybe works in a specific context being generalized past the point of the original idea making sense.
If the user needs to download a specific application to run this these web apps, then why not just send them that initial application in the first place? Why jump through the hoops of using Capsule when the same hoops can be jumped through to get to the same endpoint?
If this was a near-universally adopted application, then it'd make sense. But it's not, and the closest thing we have to that are browsers... which already do what you're describing?
Bundling data with the application makes sense, but is also only appropriate in pretty narrow circumstances. If I'm willing to ship my data with the web app, then I'll just embed the data in the HTML file. If the expectation is that the user will modify this data, then I don't think I'd want to ship it like this.
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Seems pretty useful in an enterprise context to me. I see it as an alternative to 10 million vibe coded apps to dockerize and manage. You can put the runtime on everyone’s machine and provide a web version for really collaborative stuff.
Bonus points for an intelligent way to manage these stored in OneDrive and other cloud folders. Easy to get corruption on SQLite files stored there.
Yep, like Hyperclay. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49690814
They're like lightweight versions of https://github.com/kem-a/AppManager which is for AppImages.
Not a bad thing, but it's just another dependency and tied to an OS-specific base software install.
They could work well pre-installed on the Mecha Comet with a bunch of app files ready to launch.
Can the added layers guarantee a new level of security or privacy like zero telemetry or keyjacking? Protection from bad actors is a good thing while making things faster and easier overall. Browser extensions are a security risk, right?
Java applets were a good idea in the sense that so long as you had Java installed, the applet was just sitting there on a webpage. Finding and managing the apps is the problem, and using browser bookmarks is a decent solution to it. The web page should demo the app, and there can be an 'install local' button next to it. But at some point all these local versions need to be updated and then not be messed with like browser extensions can be. FanFare would be a decent name.