Google Will Wind Down Chrome Apps Starting in June (pcworld.com) 32
Google said this week that it will begin to phase out traditional Chrome apps starting in June, and winding down slowly over two years' time. Chrome extensions, though, will live on. From a report: Google said Tuesday in a blog post that it would stop accepting new Chrome apps in March. Existing apps could continue to be developed through June, 2022. The important dates start in June of this year, when Google will end support for Chrome Apps on the Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Education and Enterprise customers on these platforms will get a little more time to get their affairs in order, until December, 2020. Google had actually said four years ago that it would phase out Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux in 2018. The company appears to have waited longer than announced before beginning this process. The other platform that's affected by this, of course, is Google's own Chrome OS and Chromebooks, for which the apps were originally developed.
Is this the end of (Score:2)
Chrome OS and the Chromebook ecosystem ?
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Not exactly, these functions are supposed to be replaced by Progressive Web Apps. Whether or not that comes to pass is another story.
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Wasn't this the argument apple made for the first iphone not having apps, that they aren't needed since you can use a web app. seems like that direction changed quick...
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I recall that was exactly the argument, and yes they reversed-course shortly after release. Perhaps PWAs have become more useful in the decade-plus since then, I don't know.
Re: Is this the end of (Score:2)
What happened with running Android apps on Chromebook?
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Why do people still invest in the Google platform? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google always shuts down or significantly changes their services after a few years. I can't imagine anyone who realizes this feeling safe developing on any Google platform, knowing their efforts will be for naught once Google kills it a few years later.
Lately I refuse to use any Google cloud-based services because I simply don't know if it'll be around five years from now.
They really need to offer services for the long haul if people are going to trust them.
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This is also true of uP companies.
Microchip really built a market based on not dropping or at least ensuring that new product would work in older designs.
Intel, who has long wanted to break into something other than server and desktop, has pushed a ton of attempts at arduino or pi killers for embedded and IoT - but when they didn't immediately rule the world, dropped them with no reasonable migration path.
And then wonders why no one designs them in. I'm sure you can come up with more examples...
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They're killing it after 10 years.
Of low adoption.
And apps can just be converted extensions or PWAs.
The general functionality isn't going away, just the name and how they're installed.
I'm still bitter about reader too, but this isn't exactly Google taking a popular product out back and shooting it.
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I don't think most people realize just how many products Google has killed. It isn't prudent to depend on their products being around in the medium term, no matter how cool.
Take a look:
https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]
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Google always shuts down or significantly changes their services after a few years.
I can't agree more with you.. you hit it right on the nail.
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knowing their efforts will be for naught once Google kills it a few years later.
If google kills it, it probably wasn't making you any money anyway...
Unifying Platform or Open it (Score:2)
From the article : According to Google, Chrome apps will be replaced by rich web apps,"
So maybe the new Rich Web App, will boost the Purism 5 phone too !
Chromebook sales cratering in 5...4...3... (Score:3)
Wow.
Was thinking about upgrading my Chromebook not a month ago. Glad I held off: I can ride this horse 'til it's dead, then make it a Linux laptop - albeit without most of what I like about Chrome OS.
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Not the same thing.
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Re: Chromebook sales cratering in 5...4...3... (Score:2)
Android on Chrome OS seriously sucks (take, f.e. that Android VPNs only protect traffic from the Android container...), and as someone who works in software development, I'm a skeptic on PWA's ability to deliver quality apps.
Additionally, the ChromeOS apps I use daily will eventually stop functioning, while Google has to evangelise the creation of new apps for a platform from which they've recently walked away (by deprecating Chrome apps).
What will I do for an SSH client in a PWA? How about my database clie
Try phpMyAdmin (Score:2)
What will I do for an SSH client in a PWA?
Install any of several web-based SSH apps [wikipedia.org] on the servers to which you have shell access.
How about my database client?
Do phpMyAdmin [phpmyadmin.net] and its counterparts for other DBMSes count? Granted, it's not "Progressive" in the sense that functionality remains if used offline, but the usefulness of offline access to a database server depends on where the database server is hosted.
VNC client?
Does noVNC [novnc.com] count?
Each of these options requires installing software on the SSH, SQL, or VNC server to which you are connecting, even if only a WebSockets proxy. The other
Star issue 909927 (Score:2)
I just discovered another option:
1. Log in to your Google Account.
2. Visit issue 909927 [chromium.org], regarding access from web applications to arbitrary TCP sockets using a non-WebSocket protocol. Look for "Starred by" near the top and star the issue yourself. (I was 13th to star it.)
3. Follow the "Other context" link in the issue description and activate the "Request access" button.
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Re: Try phpMyAdmin (Score:2)
SSH extension will break as well when NaCl goes away in 2021. Likewise, will want web sockets, not tcp, if it's ported.
Awful news.
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Re: Try phpMyAdmin (Score:2)
Ludicrous indeed.
June 2021: End support for NaCl, PNaCl, and PPAPI APIs.
https://9to5google.com/2020/01... [9to5google.com]
https://blog.chromium.org/2020... [chromium.org]
Developer info:
https://developers.chrome.com/... [chrome.com]
chrome.sockets.tcp: QuicTransport C/S (or WebSockets)
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Re: Try phpMyAdmin (Score:2)
So the more I read the developer docs on this, the worse it gets.
ChromeOS will lose the NaCl API, and pretty much require that apps use Websockets, vs. work with the rest of the Internet.
The loss of SSH is going to be a deal-breaker. Web SSH won't cut it, as it's only minimally functional. Can't port-forward, must be exposed on a web server: NFW. Not on my production web server, no.
No ability to tunnel means no database client, no VNC. No, I'm definitely not going to expose these tools on web servers (a la
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It sucks that they would be going away, but it was 2 years ago they announced it. They will still be supported for another ~2.5-3 years.
That is a pretty good warning. Also would you have to upgrade Chrome in June 2022?
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Re: Chromebook sales cratering in 5...4...3... (Score:2)
Will take most of your post as something to analyze more deeply, but sounds like you've never tried to actually configure OpenVPN on a Chromebook.
Yes, it's "built in", in the sense that there's a thing called OpenVPN, but the configuration options are both a subset of what's needed for most services, and implemented in a bizzaro file format that's poorly-documented, and not compatible with regular OpenVPN config files.
Additionally, if you attempt to configure with one of these OpenVPN config files, through
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1. I do not, and would not consider using an Android OpenVPN client on ChromeOS for the reasons I've previously pointed out. I do not expect it to protect ChromeOS at all. It's Google that recommends this approach if you can't make their awful OpenVPN implementation work Talk to them about this lunatic idea, not to me.
https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1282338?hl=en
If you need to set up more advanced features of OpenVPN or import an ".ovpn" configuration file, and your Chromebook supports the Play Store, consider installing OpenVPN for Android instead of using the built-in OpenVPN client.
On an Android device (like my phone), Android OpenVPN clients work fine.
2. Sounds like you haven't actually configured ChromeOS OpenVP
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Wow.
Was thinking about upgrading my Chromebook not a month ago. Glad I held off: I can ride this horse 'til it's dead, then make it a Linux laptop - albeit without most of what I like about Chrome OS.
There's no way Google is going to allow ChromeOS functionality to decrease. They wouldn't be making this move if that were a serious possibility. I'm sure all in-development apps will just become extensions. There's really not much difference between an app and an extension.