this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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If you are concerned about things like PWAs like I was, try it out anyway. PWAs require a bit more setup, but are a lot more flexible in Firefox. For example, PWAs with http connections have a huge banner in Chrome, and just an icon in Firefox. Everything I've noticed is that firefox is just as snappy as Chrome
I thought PWA’s didn’t work on Firefox. That’s good to know, because I’ve been using chromium specifically for PWA’s.
Same here, I tried the PWAsForFirefox extension a few years back and found the setup to be too much of a pain in the ass compared to the Chromium forks. I tried again around 9-12 months ago when Manifest V3 drama was making the rounds and found the extension had been overhauled and that's no longer a problem. As a bonus each PWA is a self-contained browser instance, so performance is improved when only the PWA is open, and extensions are per-PWA. So I can run only Purple Adblock on my Twitch PWA, or only uBlock for Youtube, etc.
I'm using them heavily as well. Mostly good. Painful though when moving between computers as you have to set them up on each one. If they can get it to sync eventually that'd be handy.
What PWA do you use? I think they're a neat idea but I haven't come up with an actual use case yet.
I just use it for any tab which I always have open, so they're organised on my taskbar. That way I don't end up with 40 tabs of like 5 different websites that I just pathologically open up a new tab for each time I revisit, having to scan through them all each time I want to switch to find one from before. That's an ADHD thing though. Effectively for some websites I want the tab to always be pinned and easily accessible with a large icon for a visual cue, and this way that all happens automatically
Gmail x2. Pulse SMS. Keep. Calendar. Whatsapp, Facebook, Messenger. All as task bar icons.
I used to use Chrome for this but every now and then it'd break and they would either open in the wrong profile, or they'd add a tab to the main browser rather than opening as a window.
Any idea how to get links clicked in a PWA like Google Messages to open in a normal browser tab? I've tried nothing.
Go to the PWA settings and enable "Open out-of-scope URLs in a default browser" and restart your PWAs.
Why would I use a PWA on the desktop?
I mainly use them when I want something windowed but without tabs taking up space. Like monitoring my solar panels
Aesthetic and productivity. Which are good reasons.
Let's say you access your company ERP system through a PWA, or the HR system. You want to alt tab back and forth to it like a regular app. You're checking supplier data on the web and entering it on the system. It's a lot easier to do so if your ERP is an app. But if it's not available as a native app, PWA is a good alternative.