Are you interested in a (cross platform) desktop app for lemmy?

morrowind@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 98 points –

I just managed to get a absolute baseline working app in avaloniaUI using this library that someone cooked up. No idea if the library is actively maintained, but uh, we'll figure that out when we get to it.

Compared to using the site, possible advantages of a desktop are:

  1. Being able to save posts offline
  2. Client side filtering
  3. performance
  4. less data usage
  5. Not having to use your browser

Other things too, I'm sure. Just trying to gauge interest here. Also I barely know avalonia or C# so just don't expect a polished app out by next monday.

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Personally, I tend to prefer apps on mobile and the web versions of services when working from a PC.

I wouldn't. I don't prefer additional apps on my PC because I switch between three computers, so the browser is much easier for me. But that's just me.

yeah, appreciate the sentiment, but my desktop already has an app to view websites

Not really. I'm happy with the web ui

Apps for desktop websites isn't a thing. That's what browser are made for.

Apps for desktop websites isn’t a thing

It totally is a thing. But at the same time, you're not wrong, since they all run on electron lmao.

I'd say that makes it even more of a thing, as people clearly want apps even if they're wrapped up websites

As long as it's open source :-)

Would love some mod tools, scraping tools, discovery tools, information dashboard for a server etc.

I don't see any reason to not make it open source

Web browser works perfectly well, can even install sites as an app on mobile

No, not really. It's a website.

Why not go the userscript route (apart from having to deal with JS which is definitely a legit reason in my book) like RES?

.NET means it'll be a huge pain to get it running on linux, so it's a no from me.

Avalonia works just fine on linux. Also if things work out, it will be AOT compiled. Plus with WSL, linux should be easy to test for me. Mac will be the only problematic one, as I don't have one.

The thing is that WSL isn't a good place to test it. I've had major issues with stuff like EDSM (for elite dangerous). It works fine on windows, linux with mono just straight up doesn't work and proton is still a pain because of all the windows dependencies.

There's also a reason why keepassXC exists, a rewrite was probably easier than making the .NET orginal run properly on linux.

Are you sure? ASP.NET Core or console apps work fine on GNU/Linux, I didn't try GUI tho.

Just note that you can use Liftoff on desktop, and I think thunder too, but not sure.

That mobile UI doesn't really cut it

Why's that? I actually find all the desktop apps shows the Post's imgs/gifs as a small thumbnail, which I don't like when scrolling the feed. For me everything there works well and pretty convenient.

It would have to offer something substantial that can't be done in a browser; the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is maybe some kind of command-line app if there's a demand for it. I think the current UI is fine but the kind of improvements you're looking for might be better for a browser extension like RES.

Yep. I loved Apollo, and cross platform ios and macos was one of the reasons. Been looking for similar ever since.

Time to look at Voyager: !voyagerapp@lemmy.world It's very Apollo'ish.

Been on voyager for weeks. Honestly the amount the damn app crashes on the phone, I am considering looking for something better, but if it has an application for my mac I will give it another chance.

Huh? No crashes here. I'm using the app that's on the Apple app store.

yes, the one on the app store. It freezes, and has to be reloaded. Also it often refuses to show newer content for a few days. Just shows the same twenty or so articles on the home screen, even after reloading.

It is annoyingly buggy, basically.

Would have to have sync of settings / layout / etc. Beauty of something like alexandrite is having my config in any browser I use

Idk about cloud sync, but I could probably let you export/import settings from json or something

Would probably be a deal breaker for me tbh, i hate having to manually sync settings between PCs, I'd probably just stick with Alexandrite or similar

What kind of settings are you changing often, beyond the initial setup?

I'm thinking things like layout, blocks, filters etc

blocks at least are stored in your lemmy account and managed server side.

You could implement 'drive sync' giving options of NextCloud, GDrive, Dropbox, etc

Yes! I tried a couple for Linux and they were shite 😂

To answer the 'just use the browser' comments - I don't like the tiny image box for posts. I'd like a much larger display for image/video-based posts so I can enjoy them at a glance. I'll only click into them if I especially want to read or post comments

  1. Not having to use your browser

How is having an app for every stupid website in anyway an advantage?

If you think lemmy is stupid, I don't think you're part of my target audience