Nativefier

Dev tools

desktop app packager

SHOW HN2016

162points
70comments
#199of 2,264 in 2016
Top 9%of 2016 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

9 positive, 19 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 14 critical, out of 45 comments about the project. Thread score -0.08.

Idea: 5 for, 7 againstExecution: 4 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 4 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Easy one-command install and build that works as advertised

    From 3 comments
    • I just tried it, skeptical that it would be that easy. Well, one command to install and one to build. Worked exactly as I advertised. Nice!
      nixy on HN
    • This is amazing. I work in digital publishing at an art museum, and we are creating digital books as static HTML/CSS/JS files which rely on client-side interactivity for most…
      katabasis on HN
    • Very cool -- I wrapped my first app and it worked great. Sadly, when I gave to copy to a less technical coworker (ie, without node.js installed) and it open with a blank window.…
      sanj on HN
  • Opens external links in the default browser

    From 1 comment
    • Hey, cool, it opens external links in my default browser. That's all I've ever wanted in a web-page-to-app tool. It's surprising no one has gotten this right before. Both…
      rcthompson on HN
  • Useful for keeping web apps in separate windows

    From 2 comments
    • When I am working on projects, I would often have hundreds of tabs open (figuratively speaking) with reference material and whatnot, and my browser tab bar would end up being a…
      skewedlines on HN
    • IMO for web apps that you have open all the time (maybe Asana, Google Docs), native OS navigation and window management is significantly better than tab navigation. Of course it…
      djacobs on HN

Objections

  • Bundles Chromium/Electron, adding bloat to each app

    From 2 comments
    • This trend of a hundred desktop applications all bundling their own copy of Chromium really bothers me. I know the situation sucks on Windows, but on Mac, why not use the system…
      mwcampbell on HN
    • I do agree with you on that, and there should be some form of Chromium that can be shared across applications to reduce the bloat of such packaged apps. Perhaps this is an issue…
      skewedlines on HN
  • Not truly native; just a stripped browser instance

    From 2 comments
    • I'm not convinced that this process qualifies as making a web page "native". After all, this just seems to spawn a new browser instance with some UI stripped away. None of the…
      woodruffw on HN
    • I'd say if your GUI layer is based on the HTML DOM then you're certainly not "native", for any useful definition of "native". Except maybe on ChromeOS, I suppose.
      ashark on HN
  • Missing favicon/icon and back button on Linux

    From 2 comments
    • I liked it. Reading Medium posts on your app was better than in a chrome browser. Congratulations. Side note: on Ubuntu there is no icon when I open the app. If it could get the…
      andersonmvd on HN
    • I like this, but wish it would automatically convert to the correct icon (it's defaulting to the electron icon). I see that there are commands in the docs to do this, will try it…
      antoniuschan99 on HN
  • Does not create offline copies of web apps

    From 1 comment
    • This doesn't seem to create offline copies of the webapps, at least assuming by the examples given (maps.google.com and medium.com), which would be quite useless as static apps.
      icebraining on HN

Requests

  • Installer packages (.dmg/.exe) for non-technical users

    From 1 comment
    • This is amazing. I work in digital publishing at an art museum, and we are creating digital books as static HTML/CSS/JS files which rely on client-side interactivity for most…
      katabasis on HN
  • HTTP authentication support

    From 1 comment
    • Hey, cool, it opens external links in my default browser. That's all I've ever wanted in a web-page-to-app tool. It's surprising no one has gotten this right before. Both…
      rcthompson on HN
  • Proxy support

    From 1 comment
    • This could be great for office users who are mostly using desktop applications. Acceptance for web apps is sometimes still hard to get. However, I haven't seen anything…
      jbi on HN
  • Automatic icon conversion from favicon

    From 2 comments
    • I like this, but wish it would automatically convert to the correct icon (it's defaulting to the electron icon). I see that there are commands in the docs to do this, will try it…
      antoniuschan99 on HN
    • I liked it. Reading Medium posts on your app was better than in a chrome browser. Congratulations. Side note: on Ubuntu there is no icon when I open the app. If it could get the…
      andersonmvd on HN
  • Chromium flags support

    From 1 comment
    • Really useful! I actually started to build a similar utility as a side project with NW.js, but I never finished it because of lack of time... You should also add the ability to…
      joeyspn on HN

Questions

  • Whether apps work on other machines of the same OS

    From 1 comment
    • Looks great, thanks for this. Wonder if the executable file will work in other systems. For example if I create an app for google.com and move that app to another system, will it…
      dieg0 on HN
  • Whether Flash is supported

    From 1 comment

Alternatives named

  • Fluid

    From 2 comments
    • There's also Fluid (http://fluidapp.com) of which I've been a happy user for years.
      c17r on HN
    • I use Fluid (http://fluidapp.com) for a similar purpose as Nativfier... it's because my brain is hard-wired from years of use to equate Cmd-Tab (or Alt-Tab) with "task switch."…
      mosburger on HN
  • Electron-based MacPin and WebShell

    From 1 comment
    • I tried doing the same thing using Electron. CPU usage isn't ideal, context menus wouldn't work, keyboard focus was an issue. Eventually I dropped it and have been using…
      mikewhy on HN
  • Chrome --app mode and app shortcuts

    From 2 comments
    • My main driver is Firefox, but Google Docs etc. won't work properly in it. I also wouldn't want it to use the same cookies (home vs. multiple work Google accounts, etc.).…
      creshal on HN
    • Honest question: Are Chrome apps "File->Create Application Shortcuts" not available on Mac OS X? Because on Linux you can create such apps very easily with this Chrome feature,…
      _droptable_ on HN
  • ManifoldJS and Crosswalk

    From 2 comments
    • http://www.manifoldjs.com/ "manifoldJS helps you reach more users than ever by packaging your web experience as native apps across Android, iOS, and Windows."
      T-A on HN
    • If you want a framework to turn a web application into a mobile app, try Crosswalk: https://crosswalk-project.org/
      JoshTriplett on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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