[TheCleric]

When it comes to a non-hosted web app most non-technical users would have no concept or ability to run a local web server whereas “install this app” is something they’re familiar with.

I’m talking from a position of “I have an app that I want to distribute to a population of end users.” If that population happens to be technical your solution would likely work fine. As well if you’re not distributing apps to end users you can do what’s right for you. But if you are you have to meet your users where they’re at.

As well operating outside of the browser has the advantage of OS integration (tray access, alt tab support, etc).

[jauntywundrkind]

> When it comes to a non-hosted web app most non-technical users would have no concept or ability to run a local web server whereas “install this app” is something they’re familiar with.

Clearly not true.

Sonarr and Radarr for example installs like a normal app. Then sits in the system tray. If click the system tray, most options inside launch a web browser that brings you to the localhost webapp. https://sonarr.tv/

People seem to assume this would be a hard to handle thing, but you can easily applicationize your local web services. And your local web service daemon can expose things like a system tray, to afford some classic manageability.

[theo0833]

> It seems so inferior to have the same thing but lose access to the browser's suite of tools/capabilities.

Explicitly removing the browser capabilities/tools is a feature imo. i.e to hide the moving parts.

Within a browser, the average low tech users may:

- ...install extensions(ad blockers? dark reader?) that interfere with the app in some way.

- ...mess with the back/forward buttons ,corrupting the router/ui state, or just get very curious why the back button kicks them back to the last page instead of closing a fullscreen modal.

- ...bookmark SPA js-driven pages where the ui state is not fully saved in the address bar(via query params, hashes, etc) and surprisingly find them broken/not working as intended when accessing the bookmark again.

- ...try to copy and send the "localhost" link to their friends and complain.(Hold on to your papers - I've seen this behavior at my workplace!)

All of those will generate complains, useless bug reports and sometimes negative reviews. While some (if not most) of the problems can be solved with great software design and extra care, I think solving these problems comes at a cost that can be very well avoided by simply removing these capabilities.

[jauntywundrkind]

All but the last list user addordances that are good for the user and that a well designed webapp should accommodate for. The browser has some solid tools to for all of these. I don't see these as a burden, I see them as positive abilities of the web.