
Show HN: Creating Custom Ubuntu Web Link App - vackosar
http://vaclavkosar.com/2018/02/25/Creating-Custom-Ubuntu-Web-Link-App.html
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JepZ
Well, I don't know the Ubuntu specific part, but in Chrome with KDE you can
simply click (probably works with other desktop environments too):

    
    
      Menu -> Tools -> Add to desktop
    

Et voilà, you have an app with a separate profile in your KDE menu. For
example, that is the way I use [https://draw.io](https://draw.io)

Didn't know through that it was so easy to get it working with FF too. Thanks
:-)

~~~
Jaruzel
I run WhatsApp, Messenger, and and couple of Slack channels, as separate
'applications' by using the '\--app=<url>' when launching Chrome. However they
are not sandboxed.

Chromium can be run in portable mode, so I guess you could sandbox apps by
having separate side-by-side Chromium installs. That said, this tool is
probably easier to use.

~~~
mikewhy
Do the --profile-directory / \--user-data-dir flags help here?

~~~
JepZ
I am wondering whats the difference. So far I was able to find this explaining
the flags:

    
    
      profile-directory: // Selects directory of profile to associate with the first browser launched. [1]
    
      user-data-dir: // Specifies the user data directory, which is where the browser will look for all of its state. [2]
    

But to be honest I am not sure I understand that completely. I mean there is
also some documentation stating that the user-data-dir contains profile
data[3]. Does anybody what the actual difference is?

[1]:
[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#702)

[2]:
[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc#835)

[3]:
[https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs...](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/user_data_dir.md)

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roryisok
This reminds me of Mozilla prism, which I think is discontinued now. I always
liked having a separate window and process for gmail that wouldn't close if my
browser crashed

