TIL: Web Apps have landed in Firefox Nightly for Linux

Posted by mananabanana17@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 66 comments

I had long wished that Firefox on Linux would implement a way to create desktop entries for various web based apps (e.g. Apple Music). It was released for Windows last year, but, there was no news for Linux for a long time. But, it seems that last month this feature has landed in Firefox Nightly for Linux. I've tested it with Niri and it works as expected. A .desktop entry is created in $XDG_DATA_HOME/applications.

You can enable it in nightly by switching browser.taskbarTabs.enabled to true in about:config.

Tracking issue: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1982733

P.S. Not implemented yet for flatpak and snap but most likely will be soon.

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YourComputerBlog@reddit

Fucking finally

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fake_agent_smith@reddit

Finally fucking

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YourComputerBlog@reddit

Iam a Kubuntu user I aint fucking anything

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

If kubuntu users are cooked, what should we, Arch users, expect?

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Dalemaunder@reddit

Another Amazon delivery of anime body pillows.

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JockstrapCummies@reddit

Amazon

Please, that's for us Ubuntu users with the Amazon Unity lens.

Arch users order their body pillows with an AUR script that ships directly from a Shenzhen upstream source.

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CheesyRamen66@reddit

My body pillow failed to compile

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Ok-Winner-6589@reddit

Nah Bro you got me there 😆

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CashewNuts100@reddit

linux is the best contraception

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Mysterious_Pie7377@reddit

You mean like dragging a URL onto your desktop or launch bar and it creating a shortcut like you can do now?

I don't get it. A "web application" is just a browser running a specific web address.

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

I'm not sure about the exact implementation details, but, you can press a button on any URL and that will be turned into a .desktop file, with the site's icon, which will be run with its own context (separate cookies etc.).

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Mysterious_Pie7377@reddit

Like I can use containers in Firefox now?

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

They're hidden behind privacy.userContext.enabled and privacy.userContext.ui.enabled in about:config in the stable release. Should be available in a couple of releases I guess.

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God_Hand_9764@reddit

This sounds pretty nice.

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vividboarder@reddit

Yes, without the browser chrome around it and a dedicated task bar icon.

It sounds simple, but it's helpful since it allows you to Alt+Tab back to the application rather than it getting lost in additional tabs or between multiple browser windows.

I have a few PWAs I use on my phone: Music Assistant, Open WebUI, Wekan to name a few.

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Mysterious_Pie7377@reddit

Like you can do when you drag a tab onto your desktop and it becomes its own window?

I think people who want this useless crap don't realize the capabilities of browsers.

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mikistikis@reddit

I've been using webapp-manager with Firefox for a couple of years with (almost) no issues.

Any reason to choose this "native" way over webapp, or the other way round?

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MichaelTunnell@reddit

the only reason I can see is the integration with Multiple Account Containers, that would be quite interesting. Right now everything is isolated in webapp manager which is good in a way but being able to have stuff integrated or isolated depending on how you feel that day... that sounds good to me :D

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Pussyphobic@reddit

The reason I use chrome is all my extensions work the same in even PWA. In such webapp-manager you would need to install extensions separately in each.

Also a random quirk is with gnome. Chrome (without flatpal) has figured out a way to best show icons of pwa in dash, and not just generic chrome. With webapp-manager it is always using a generic icon or browser icon

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AFCMS@reddit

Do they support filesystem handlers and the rest of PWA features or are they just .desktop file creation + page in a separate window?

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

Just .desktop files and separate window with reduced browser chrome, afaik

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Cube00@reddit

About time, no idea why they were so resistant to this for so long back to the PWA install saga.

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Omen_20@reddit

I did the same thing for years on my work computer, using Edge to create PWAs and then Vivaldi for my actual browsing.

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TxTechnician@reddit

Fuck chrome PWA.

I've been using the Firefox extension for years.

https://txtechnician.tech/blog/tech-tips-1/make-any-website-an-app-firefox-pwa-addon-6

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dswhite85@reddit

Using chrome just because of web apps damn that is something I could not ever do myself

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Cube00@reddit

I still used Firefox as my daily driver but had PWAs installed as icons with Chrome. The nice thing about installed PWAs is they look like regular apps so you don't really notice which browser is hosting the.

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dswhite85@reddit

I feel kind of dirty, just knowing you lol

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GandhiTheDragon@reddit

So, can we get webusb as well now?

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ivanjxx@reddit

just use chromium

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TaresPL@reddit

Can anyone ELI5 what the hype is about?

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redundant78@reddit

basically it lets you "install" a website as its own app with its own window and desktop entry, so it feels like a native app instead of just another browser tab. think stuff like Spotify web, Discord, Google Maps etc running in their own window without the browser UI chrome around them.

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

If you use an app on the web (like Gmail, Apple Music, Figma, etc), and you want desktop integration (icon in desktop environment app launcher, unique icon in the dock, etc.), and isolation from the main firefox instance, now firefox (nightly for now) can do that for you.

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BinkReddit@reddit

Finally! Firefox is practically the default on Linux, so I'm happy to finally see some feature parity with Windows here!

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Serious_Berry_3977@reddit

I'm using PWAs for Firefox and it's been working great. No issues with integration with KDE menus on Fedora. The only downside is I have to reconfigure Firefox and Extensions to my liking in each app since it recommends creating new profiles for each app. Not a huge deal, and it kind of keeps things sandboxed too.

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TxTechnician@reddit

There's a way to create a manifest for the new profile. I've been meaning to do it.

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Pussyphobic@reddit

I can finally return to firefox.

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sky_blue_111@reddit

Well many of us have been using Linux Mint's excellent Web App Manager for years to do this.

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BoysenberryNervous60@reddit

I was just thinking something similar. I just moved to Linus with MintOS and it came with that out of the box. Really helped me migrate stuff. Also figuring out how to load my onedrive with third party applications and Google Drive too.

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TestingTheories@reddit

Yep

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BoysenberryNervous60@reddit

Weird. Mint OS had one preinstalled and it help me start up with web versions of things I use a lot on Windows.

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Rialagma@reddit

It's great to see Firefox finally catching up with Gnome Web

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noobjaish@reddit

Bruh lmao

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kemma_@reddit

The last feature Gnome web had edge

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Rialagma@reddit

The firefox devs had an epiphany

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Much_Clue7037@reddit

LMAO

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partev@reddit

let's not platform Mozilla's browser because they are hateful bigots

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Damaniel2@reddit

If I had to stop using every product that Reddit told me is 'problematic', I'd be sitting in an empty cave in the woods, eating grass with my bare hands.

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Fantastic_Brain7269@reddit

What is the issue with Mozilla? I've never heard that they were hateful.

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Kok_Nikol@reddit

Hey OP is this what you're referring to - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/web-apps-firefox-windows ?

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

Yes, but that page is only for windows. Check the bug tracker link in the original post.

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Kok_Nikol@reddit

Oh, I had no idea it's Windows only.

I've been using it on my Windows work laptop for a while now, and it's great. Was just lazy on my own PC.

Looking forward to it landing in regular release!

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noobjaish@reddit

Thank god now Zen's team can bring web apps into their browser m

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Remarkable-Emu-5718@reddit

What does this mean for users?

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noobjaish@reddit

Zen's team was going to implement PWAs on their own but then it turned out that Firefox was ready to implement it.

So instead of wasting efforts they just decided to wait for upstream and I'm glad now they can proceed.

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PJBthefirst@reddit

Zen's team can bring web apps into their browser

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Ohmyskippy@reddit

Slightly unrelated question, but how are you finding niri?

For like 7 years I was using dwm, and recently switched to hyprland, but am considering looking for something more stable, not sure I like the release cadence if hyprland.

My main reason for not yet trying niri out is I feel like the whole scrolling vs tiling seems completely opposite, and I feel like it will mess with my intuition

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mananabanana17@reddit (OP)

I was a GNOME user for 5 years. Never used a tiling/scrolling WM before 2 months ago. So, I can't say if you'd miss tiling or not, but, I'm personally loving the scrolling experience. No regrets for now.

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