Comments on: Mozilla Prism: Stuck In The Middle With UI

By: aranwe

aranwe — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:47:41 +0000

How is this different than Sidewinder or Adobe Air?

By: crome

crome — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:17:49 +0000

Since I got my iPhone I have been getting used to the idea of web apps as prior to the SDk this was the main way of adding functionality. The idea of running similar web apps on my desktop is very appealing, no updates etc.

I also like the idea above of being able to create an installer, could see a lot of potential there.

The school I work for could find it useful for staff accessing our MIS through the ePortal which normally they have to find through their browser but using this we could make it feel more like a normal application for them.

By: mattymcg

mattymcg — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:23:33 +0000

@bvarvel: The difference is that Prism makes desktopifying a web app EASY. It might be easy for you or me to modify the browser chrome, but most web users wouldn’t know where to start. There are other advantages over just running it in a browser too, which I’ve listed above.

@Ronald Schouten: Good point. This makes it even more exciting.

By: Ronald Schouten

Ronald Schouten — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:47:38 +0000

I think the disadvantage of not being able to run apps off line is false. Since Prism is based on the latest Mozilla platform it should support the off line storage features coming with Firefox 3. Also, since extensions are available it should be easy to add the Google Gears extension (even if Google Gears does not support FF3 yet - I’m sure it will soon).

By: AndrewCharron

AndrewCharron — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:08:59 +0000

I only looked very quickly, but this could be a winner if you could somehow make it into a package.

Ex:
1) I create a web app online, http://www.example.com/webapp
2) I use prism to create a bundle package that installs prism with the app location and all set up, with a nice installer.
3) I offer the package as a download. They can download, run the installer, and use like any other program.

If it did this, I can see a huge exploding market for web apps.

By: kioopi

kioopi — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:22:45 +0000

Prism lets you assign a user-defined script and stylesheet to a webapp-bundle.
I’m using it for quite a while now and feel much less CSRF-vulnerable because of it.

By: bvarvel

bvarvel — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:17:06 +0000

How is this any different than simply creating a custom shortcut to launch the browser with the designated website? Last I checked you could customize the browsers chrome, the browser picks up the favicon by default, and you can customize the shortcut… so what’s the big deal?

By: mattymcg

mattymcg — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:19:02 +0000

@AlexW: Actually I stand corrected — you can install any compatible Firefox extension that you like via the Tools > Add-ons window, which is in the bottom right of the application window. Not sure why it hasn’t been added to the regular dropdown menu, but it’s good to know that it’s there!

By: AlexW

AlexW — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:10:46 +0000

It’s cool that it’s stripped back, but a customized web app like this needs some way to customize the content.

It seems a little counter-intuitive to me that Prism is built to let you focus entirely on the operations of a single site, yet it’s ultimately less flexible — thanks to no Greasemonkey — than my standard Firefox. I could see some cool uses of this with, say, eBay or Google Maps, but they all rely on the browser doing stuff better than the site does by default, not just cleaner and faster.

If you get some control, there’s potentially a whole new business in building stuff like deluxe eBay viewers.

By: faramarz

faramarz — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:51:46 +0000

Very interesting, if it could do work offline, then web services could replace the desktop applications which ordinary users use in everyday life.
I think that it would be the trend of future though.