What's the advantage of using the Ubuntu web apps browser?

Solution 1:

It's a lightweight browser, so is quick to start up:

It takes me 54 seconds for chrome to load, and just 3 for "Ubuntu Web Browser" to load.

It is a desktop link, straight to the page you want. Admittedly, you can do exactly the same thing with Google Chrome (Options -> More Tools -> Application Shortcuts) so that's fairly redundant - although Firefox can't do this as far as I know.

And is it Safari?

Detect my Browser says I'm using Netscape version 5 on Linux.

What Is My Browser says Chromium 35 on Ubuntu

About My Broswer says Safari 537.36 on Ubuntu Touch. Not sure why it thinks those two things - Safari is OSX only, and I'm not on Ubuntu Touch.

What Browser? says Chromium 35 as well.

What's My Browser says Unknown Browser.

What browser am I using? also says Safari.

ThisMachine.info thinks Safari 537.36 on Linux as well.

Finally, What Version is my Browser? says Netscape version 5 on Linux.

This is the Wikipedia article on "Netscape Navigator", but it's quite confusing.

This YouTube video says it is based on the "Oxide browser engine", and a Google search for that gives the Launchpad page, which says:

Oxide makes it possible for developers to embed a Chromium-powered webview in their application

Essentially, it's a cut-down version of Chromium (or to be more accurate, it's Chromium with a different skin - the box that shows the page is the only part that uses Chromium).

What's the point? Not much for a desktop + mouse user. However, it seems to be built for touch screens (as speculated in this Forum post).

Note that you can access "tabs" and a URL bar - it's a little like Internet Explorer on Touch.

I've recorded a short video - have a look at the YouTube video (1080p). The glitches are (I think) the application's fault.

In case you can't tell, you drag up from the bottom to open the bar, then you can navigate the "tab" history with Back and Forward. This browser doesn't support Mouse buttons that go Back and Forward (because it's for touch screens I guess).

To access the tabs, click Activity - you will see your recent pages, currently open tabs (I can't see how to close them).

Finally, you can hover over the "Activity" header to click "Bookmarks".

My pronouns are He / Him

Solution 2:

From https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/web/

Ubuntu webapps are web-hosted sites displayed inside an Ubuntu app container. They are true apps that users install, see, launch and use. But their content is provided through URLs.

... ...

Features

• Super simple and easy to create and publish
• Extend your websites into converged Ubuntu as apps
• URL patterns control what can be opened in webapp and what goes to browser while enabling complex apps drawn from multiple URLs
• Security: Links to other URLs open in browser, so user cannot be spoofed
• Containment: Webapps use isolated cookies, history, etc. that is not shared with any browser
• Integration with Ubuntu/Unity shell: Found as an app, launched as an app, displayed as app
• Click packaged and distributed through the Ubuntu Software Store
• Runs on Oxide, a state-of-the-art web engine based on Blink/Chromium, optimized for Ubuntu