How to run websites as apps in Linux with any browser (ZDNET)

[Jason]

I haven't tried doing this yet but it looks like it could be useful. It's a way to view those webpages like apps where you don't need (or want) the extra browser buttons, etc. Let us know if you try this.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-run-websites-as-apps-in-linux-with-any-browser/

[fox]

I've been looking for something like this for awhile, so I installed it. Unfortunately, I'm not impressed. I made a webapp and tried to launch it. The message I got was that Firefox was already running and I must close the existing process, restart my device or use a different profile. So I closed FF and tried again - same message. I then logged out and logged back in. Same message. 

[Jason]

I'm not sure the information will necessarily help, but what distribution were you using? It might just help anyone here trying it to know there might be a problem with that one.

Just to make sure I understand what's going on, you have Firefox open and then you try and run the web app and you get the error message? And closing Firefox doesn't help. What if you reboot the computer and then run the webapp without running Firefox first?

If you get the error message again, check in the process monitor if there actually is an instance of Firefox running. And kill it, if so.

I haven't tried this yet. I'm using opensuse so I'd need an rpm version and not sure if there is one to try, but I haven't looked, either.

I wonder how Peppermint OS does it if they still do. That was their main feature, web apps. Ice something or another, I believe. Not suggesting you switch to Peppermint but I bet they're using a similar program to make web apps that might work better for you.

[fox]

Distro is Ubuntu 23.04. I tried it in all the ways you suggested. Following you last suggestion, I quit FF and checked the System Monitor, and no instance of FF was running. Tried again to start up a site I set up with WebApp, and got the same result. I'm not that interested in it that I would try more troubleshooting.

I recall now that I was successfully running web apps in Peppermint using Ice. I did try installing Ice at one time on Ubuntu. I think it did work, but what I wanted to use it for (Google Calendar) was problematic because I had to sign in everytime to use it that way. Better to just click on the bookmark for that one that I set up in FF. It doesn't ask me to sign in.

[Jason]

Yeah, that's awkward. Well, thank you for reporting back to us. Sounds like it has some rough edges for them to figure out. I wonder if a recent Firefox update broke it or something similar. Or maybe it just doesn't like Ubuntu. As for the calendar, doesn't Ubuntu have an option in their calendar program to sync with Google Calendar?

[fox]

I had forgotten that Ubuntu has a calendar program. It's actually Gnome Calendar, which isn't specific to Ubuntu. But I opened it up and found that it was synced with Google Calendar. Using its settings, you can choose from among several calendar accounts in the cloud, including NextCloud and Microsoft Exchange.