* The Firefox (BETA) entry does not work on default Ubuntu installs, where Firefox is a Snap. Yes, snap bad, bla bla bla, but it still remains one of the most likely way Firefox will be installed on Ubuntu. This comes from the fact that your script attempts to locate the profile folder in ~/.mozilla/firefox, whereas snaps stores them in ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/.
* New profiles unfortunately don't share logins on Firefox, which means your app is disconnected at first. Not a big deal, but could maybe be changed by copying some things from the default profile ?
* Firefox does not display _any_ titlebar when ran in this way.
Love the idea. There's many times where I'd like something to have a bit more "privilege" on my toolbar than what a regular tab (even pinned) gets.
Since Mozilla has started to provide an official Debian-style repository there is no reason to use snap on Ubuntu any more. Well, except if some users don't know or don't care to switch.
One aspect is that the server side is not free software. So only Canonical can reasonably host a repo of snaps.
That was enough for me not to look into the technical merits of the clientside implementation. The few experiences I had with snap was that programs were starting slowly (Firefox) and e.g. GPU acceleration did not work (vlc). Not sure how good the sandboxing is. But I run my Firefox sandboxed by firejail and the overhead can not be felt in daily usage.
- Yes I could create a second firefox preset for snap installs
- I would prefer not to touch such sensible files, but will give instructions on how to do it manually
I had written a similar program (but very barebone compared with what you've made), with Firefox only. The way I dealt with profile, is to specify the full path of the profile, rather than a name. This way, I don't have to know where Firefox is searching for profiles, and I can keep all the additional profiles in a separate directory, so they don't mix with normal profiles and don't clog up profile manager.
@mathix maybe you can make it clear on the website that this doesn't create app/play store apps, as most people probably think about them when they read "turn any website into an app".
From the github readme[0]:
> FTWA uses the --app='https://app.example' parameter with Chromium-based browsers to launch a website in "app mode".
> [...]
> When choosing linux as target OS, FTWA generate a shell script that will create a .desktop file and it's icons.
I just switched to Firefox and struggled with this exact functionality. The posted site ships a script for curl|sh that creates a new firefox profile with a custom userChrome.css.
I ended up writing a firefox extension to open up URLs in a new "popup" window[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-app-maker.... I just checked it on Windows (usually using linux) and the popup window type does not allow the maximize button to work. Oh well...
There's an excellent extension that makes this pretty simple to manage. Additionally the windows it creates have some pwa specific settings, like how links should be handled.
For people who want a "separate window" on Chrome osX (at least), you can go on the website, click on the "..." next to your profile picture, then "Cast, save and share" > "Install website as app"
It does the same, but runs as a "separate app" so that cmd+Q only exits the app
Yes, it's pretty much the same for macOS I guess. On linux it's pretty different, I was using .desktop files over PWAs for years because of their bad UI on Linux.
So I did this, turned out it's not only just Firefox without the browser UI, but it also bricked my actual Firefox browser and now it doesn't connect to the internet.
I would like to have the complete opposite. Turn any app into a website so that I don't need to download them, and can just access them through my browser.
This is really cool! Any chance of adding support for the Arc browser? Right now, Chrome allows for some websites (WhatsApp, Spotify, YouTube Music) to be made into "apps" already via PWAs. Arc - which is based on chromium, for some mysterious reason, chooses to not support PWAs so this would be extremely useful for Arc!
This was just a side project, I was using .desktop files to launch some websites and thought it was still pretty unknown by most people. So I created this website.
Pretty good! Just a few observations:
* The Firefox (BETA) entry does not work on default Ubuntu installs, where Firefox is a Snap. Yes, snap bad, bla bla bla, but it still remains one of the most likely way Firefox will be installed on Ubuntu. This comes from the fact that your script attempts to locate the profile folder in ~/.mozilla/firefox, whereas snaps stores them in ~/snap/firefox/common/.mozilla/firefox/.
* New profiles unfortunately don't share logins on Firefox, which means your app is disconnected at first. Not a big deal, but could maybe be changed by copying some things from the default profile ?
* Firefox does not display _any_ titlebar when ran in this way.
Love the idea. There's many times where I'd like something to have a bit more "privilege" on my toolbar than what a regular tab (even pinned) gets.
Since Mozilla has started to provide an official Debian-style repository there is no reason to use snap on Ubuntu any more. Well, except if some users don't know or don't care to switch.
Do you have a good summary of why snap is bad?
One aspect is that the server side is not free software. So only Canonical can reasonably host a repo of snaps.
That was enough for me not to look into the technical merits of the clientside implementation. The few experiences I had with snap was that programs were starting slowly (Firefox) and e.g. GPU acceleration did not work (vlc). Not sure how good the sandboxing is. But I run my Firefox sandboxed by firejail and the overhead can not be felt in daily usage.
Thanks!
- Yes I could create a second firefox preset for snap installs - I would prefer not to touch such sensible files, but will give instructions on how to do it manually
I had written a similar program (but very barebone compared with what you've made), with Firefox only. The way I dealt with profile, is to specify the full path of the profile, rather than a name. This way, I don't have to know where Firefox is searching for profiles, and I can keep all the additional profiles in a separate directory, so they don't mix with normal profiles and don't clog up profile manager.
Yes I saw this option as well, but it seems that it's not possible for macOS
Cool stuff!
@mathix maybe you can make it clear on the website that this doesn't create app/play store apps, as most people probably think about them when they read "turn any website into an app".
From the github readme[0]:
> FTWA uses the --app='https://app.example' parameter with Chromium-based browsers to launch a website in "app mode".
> [...]
> When choosing linux as target OS, FTWA generate a shell script that will create a .desktop file and it's icons.
[0]: https://github.com/mathix420/free-the-web-apps?tab=readme-ov...
Thanks! Yes I didn't realized I don't speak about this on the website, good advice!
I just switched to Firefox and struggled with this exact functionality. The posted site ships a script for curl|sh that creates a new firefox profile with a custom userChrome.css.
There is an official thread here with people discussing how the single-page-as-an-app functionality should work: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-can-firefox-c...
I ended up writing a firefox extension to open up URLs in a new "popup" window[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-app-maker.... I just checked it on Windows (usually using linux) and the popup window type does not allow the maximize button to work. Oh well...
[1]https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/Web...
There's an excellent extension that makes this pretty simple to manage. Additionally the windows it creates have some pwa specific settings, like how links should be handled.
https://github.com/filips123/PWAsForFirefox/
For people who want a "separate window" on Chrome osX (at least), you can go on the website, click on the "..." next to your profile picture, then "Cast, save and share" > "Install website as app"
It does the same, but runs as a "separate app" so that cmd+Q only exits the app
Yes, it's pretty much the same for macOS I guess. On linux it's pretty different, I was using .desktop files over PWAs for years because of their bad UI on Linux.
So I did this, turned out it's not only just Firefox without the browser UI, but it also bricked my actual Firefox browser and now it doesn't connect to the internet.
Oh pretty strange, could you please raise on issue on GitHub so I can have any chance of debugging this?
How's this different from chrome browser's PWA install? https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361?sjid=105106...
I believe the PWAs will correctly show up in the OS native app launchers.
It's different in the fact that PWAs needs to be setup by the website's developer.
Been using Unite for years — https://www.bzgapps.com/unite. It's a little better since v5, but it's still pretty buggy, which frustrates me.
Eager to try your product! Have you considered including it on SetApp?
I don't think it qualifies for SetApp, and I want to deliver ot freely.
Possibly Offtopic ...
I wanted Udemy app to be available for smart TV platforms like FireTV stick or SamsungTV.
Udemy makes an android and ios app but not for TVs.
Teachable is another online learning platform that ignores Android altogether and makes only an ios app.
LMS vendors like Docebo that have become very popular (AWS Skill Builder, Databricks academy, etc) have very poor mobile support.
Wonder if there is a way to make it work using tools like these. Any pointers in that direction would be appreciated.
I would like to have the complete opposite. Turn any app into a website so that I don't need to download them, and can just access them through my browser.
With FTWA apps are still websites, it's just another way of opening them without distractions of the browser frame.
I think they’re saying that instead of having to try, for example, an iOS app by downloading it from the App Store, they prefer to visit a URL.
How would you then pay 30% Apple tax?! What a ridiculous idea!
This is really cool! Any chance of adding support for the Arc browser? Right now, Chrome allows for some websites (WhatsApp, Spotify, YouTube Music) to be made into "apps" already via PWAs. Arc - which is based on chromium, for some mysterious reason, chooses to not support PWAs so this would be extremely useful for Arc!
Is this just a shortcut creator script with a landing page?
Basically yes, but the shortcut open a frameless browser.
Kinda off topic but this is a "Linux First" UI application(?) and I love it.
If you are interested in using this then I can also highly recommend webapp manager.
https://github.com/linuxmint/webapp-manager
This has been done a hundred times over.
This was just a side project, I was using .desktop files to launch some websites and thought it was still pretty unknown by most people. So I created this website.
I thought this would generate a mobile app APK containing a webview for the website
No that's exactly what I wanted to avoid, this would be similar to what electron does.
Is this the “Add to Dock…” feature of Safari?
I also could not figure out the difference between FTWA and Safari's "Add to Dock..."? Is FTWA an equivalent meant for other platforms like Windows?
FTWA was created for linux in the first place. I then added support for macOS as requested, but yeah on macOS is pretty similar to PWAs.