I prefer desktop apps in almost every scenario. I like being able to map specific applications to keyboard shortcuts so that I can bring it up in an instant with just a few keys. This doesn't work with browsers, as I would have to either use a browser for one thing only, or having multiple apps running long term in one browser. The latter requires me to either have multiple windows or multiple tabs open at once, increasing the amount of time + keystrokes I need to get to the thing I'm looking for. I also like to show and hide windows pretty frequently, as well as move applications around a lot both within and across monitors, so this 1:1 mapping of "application" to "window" is very important to my workflow.

For example, I keep a Brave window open at all times that has a bunch of pinned tabs for my favorite myNoise[1] generators, as well as a dedicated window for Oryx Live Training (when it works) that helps me remember my custom keyboard layout [2]. Even if I pin all of them so I can't close them out by accident, I have to use my Brave shortcut and then tab through the open tabs and windows to find what I'm looking for, which can be annoying at times.

This specific usage pattern is why I like nativefier[3] so much. I've used to turn ProtonMail and ProtonCalendar into their own "native" Electron apps, so I can treat them as "regular" desktop applications and can control them as such. However, it doesn't work super well with multiple tabs (or at least last time I tried it didn't), so I haven't adopted it for things like GitHub and YouTube where I like to open most things in new tabs so I can switch back and forth as needed.

You alluded to this as well, but in every case I can think of, the desktop version of the app is also more fully featured and has more options, and I'd rather have easy access to those features (even if I don't need them often) than just use the web app and be constrained by its offerings.

That being said, if anyone has workflows for easily working with browser tabs and windows that are intended to be long-running, I would love to hear about them. Being able to have dedicated windows for myNoise, GitHub, Reddit, HN, etc would be awesome.

[1]: https://mynoise.net/ [2]: https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/ergodox-ez/layouts/DZWqE/la... [3]: https://github.com/jiahaog/Nativefier

user:	spacefiish
created:	October 20, 2020
karma:	16