Web app manager linux mint

Soon You’ll be Able to Convert Any Website into Desktop Application in Linux Mint

Last updated September 4, 2020 By Abhishek Prakash 52 Comments

Imagine this situation. You are working on a certain topic and you have more than twenty tabs open in your web browser, mostly related to the work.

Some of these tabs are for YouTube or some other music streaming website you are listening to.

You finished the work on the topic and close the browser. Your intent was to close all the work related tabs but it also closed the tabs that you were using for listening to music or some other activities.

Now you’ll have to log in to those websites again and find the track you were listening to or whatever you were doing.

Frustrating, isn’t it? Linux Mint understands your pain and they have an upcoming project to help you out in such scenario.

Linux Mint’s Web App Manager

In a recent post, Linux Mint team revealed that it is working on a new tool called Web App Manager.

The Web App Manager tool will allow you to launch your favorite websites and have them run in their own window as if they were desktop applications.

While adding a website as a Web App, you can give it a custom name and icon. You can also give it a different category. This will help you search this app in the menu.

You may also specify which web browser you want the Web App to be opened in. Option for enabling/disabling navigation bar is also there.

Say, you add YouTube as a Web App:

If you run this YouTube Web App, YouTube will now run in its own window and in a browser of your choice.

The Web App has most of the features you see in a regular desktop application. You can use it in Alt+Tab switcher:

You can even pin the Web App to the panel/taskbar for quick access.

The Web App Manager is in beta right now but it is fairly stable to use. It is not translation ready right now and this is why it is not released to the public.

If you are using Linux Mint and want to try the Web App Manager, you can download the DEB file for the beta version of this app from the link below:

Benefits of the web apps

Some readers asked about the benefits of this Web App Manager over other similar feature already available in Chrome and some other web browsers. Let me expand on this topic.

• You can use a specific part of the URL (example.com/tool instead of example.com) as an app.
• The possibility of adding custom icons comes handy for websites without a clear fevicon.
• You can use a lightweight browser without any extension to open the web app instead of the regular web browser like Chrome/Chromium. It should be faster.
• Your web app is integrated into the application menu. You can search for it like any other application.

Web apps are not new to desktop Linux

This is not something ground breaking from Linux Mint. Web apps have been on the scene for almost a decade now.

If you remember, Ubuntu had added the web app feature to its Unity desktop in 2013-14.

The lightweight Linux distribution PeppermintOS lists ICE (tool for web apps) as its main feature since 2010. In fact, Linux Mint’s Web App manager is based on Peppermint OS’s ICE.

Personally, I like web apps feature. It has its usefulness.

What do you think of Web Apps in Linux Mint? Is it something you look forward to use? Do share your views in the comment section.

Like what you read? Please share it with others.

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How to Install Linux Mint’s Web App Manager in Ubuntu 20.04

The latest Linux Mint 20.1 introduced a new application, Web App Manager, allows to turn any web pages into desktop applications. Like a normal application, web app has its own window, its own icon, and can be launched from system app menu.

Ubuntu used to have web apps integration when it was Ubuntu 14.04. The project was however discontinued.

For those want to try out the new Web App Manager from Linux Mint, here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 20.04.

Download & Install the DEB binary via direct link:

If you just want to try it out, the DEB binary package is available to download via Linux Mint ftp download page:

Grab it and install the package either via Gdebi package installer or by running command in terminal:

Add Linux Mint repository & Receive software udpates (for Web App Manager only):

You are able to add Linux Mint repository and only receive updates for the app from that repository.

1.) First download the key (it’s “ linuxmint-keyring_2016.05.26_all.deb ” so far):

And install it via command:

2.) Add Linux Mint 20 repository by running command:

3.) Set the priority to make Ubuntu only install webapp-manager from Linux Mint repository.

Run command to create and open the configuration file in text editor:

When it opens, paste below lines and save the file.

4.) Now run apt update command to refresh your system package cache:

5.) Before installing the webapp-manager package, try command:

It won’t really install the package, but only list which packages will be installed, including the package versions (which marked with package source, Ubuntu or Linux Mint).

6.) To finally install the application, run command:

How to Remove Web App Manager:

To remove the application, simply open terminal and run command:

To remove the Linux Mint repository, remove the relevant line from Software & Updates -> Other Software.

And you may also remove the config file created to set the priority, via command:

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Web App Manager in Linux Mint converts websites into apps

The Linux Mint team has published their monthly news issue for the project, which comes with plenty of interesting announcements. These include a few important updates to Linux Mint 19.3, bugfixes, and a new app, Web App Manager, that allows running websites as standalone apps in Linux. It is something close to Progressive Web Apps.

The announced bugfixes include the following.

• cinnamon-session: Don’t let unresponsive programs delay the shutdown.
• muffin: Fixed crash with certain Steam games in fullscreen.
• muffin: Fixed black glitches and random desktop artefacts.
• Bug fixes were also applied specifically to Linux Mint 20 and LMDE 4 to address a case which made the desktop crash as well as cosmetic issues, keybinding issues.

Warpinator

‘Warpinator’ is a new app, first introduced in Linux Mint 20, which replicates the now-missing functionality of Linux Mint 6. It was powered by a third-party app Giver, which is now discontinued. To fill the gap, Warpinator will allow the user to easily share files across the local network. Without any server or configuration, computers would automatically see each other and you could simply drag and drop files from one to another.

Warpinator is now available to all users of Linux as a Flatpak. If you are using Linux Mint 19.x or Linux Mint 18.x open the Software Manager and search for “Warpinator”. Here’s also a link: https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.x.Warpinator

Web App Manager

Web App Manager is a brand new app from the Linux Mint project that allows you to easily launch your favorite websites and have them running in their own windows as if they were desktop applications. Web App Manager, based on PeppermintOS app «ICE», includes the following features:

• A new icon and generic name
• A new user interface
• 100% back and forth compatibility with ICE
• A split backend to make it easy for ICE and Web App manager to use the same codebase if they both want to retain separate UIs.
• The ability to edit Web applications
• Icon theme support with icons automatically guessed for popular websites
• Improved favicon downloads (including support for favicongrabber.com)
• The ability to show or hide the Firefox navigation bar
• Full translation support for all major languages (at the time of release)

Each website launched with this app will have its own browser profile, and its own window. This will save your time.

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How to Install and use Web Apps in Linux mint

By supersu
Post date

Table of Contents

Have you ever faced the hassle of trying to find a single website from a bunch of open tab or from hundreds of bookmarks?

The latest update from the Linux mint developers has got you covered.

Linux mint recently announced that it has been working on a tool called Web App Manager since a while. This tool allows you to launch websites as if they were apps.

It will run these apps into an isolated environment with the browser of your choice. You can also add them in the main menu.

However, this tool was first introduced by Peppermint OS as “ICE“. It was first released in 2010 for Peppermint but now it has been ported to linux mint as well.

The Linux mint team has been trying to collaborate with Peppermint OS and has released their own version of ICE called as “Web app manager”

The features of Web App Manager are:

• A new icon and generic name
• A new user interface
• 100% back and forth compatibility with ICE
• A split backend to make it easy for ICE and Web App manager to use the same codebase if they both want to retain separate UIs.
• The ability to edit Web applications
• Icon theme support with icons automatically guessed for popular websites
• Improved favicon downloads (including support for favicongrabber.com)
• The ability to show or hide the Firefox navigation bar
• Full translation support for all major languages (at the time of release)

It runs in its own window and with its own browser profile. This means that you can log into the same website from different accounts using web apps.

Once you create a “Web Application” you can launch your website directly from the application menu. You can choose a category for the application under which it will appear in the menu.

How to Install and use Web App Manger?

Web App Manager is out from beta and is available for download easily.

It is fully stable and runs perfectly with no bugs or issues.

Open a new Terminal Window and type the following command:

If you dont want to install from teh Terminal then you can get a downloadable package of Web app from below. However, you will not get the most updated version so better install through terminal.

Download web app manager by clicking here. This is a deb file install it on your system by just double-clicking and selecting Install Package.

You will need to give it root permission, do so by filling in your password and clicking Authenticate.

Now search for Web app manager in the menu and open it. This is the software with title “Web Apps” and a cloud icon.

Add Web Apps to the Manager

Now add a new website in the Web App Manager by clicking on the small “+” icon at the bottom left.

Fill in the name and URL of the website. I am going to add Youtube as the Web APP, so I have given it the name Youtube and in the Address bar I have filled URL of Youtube.com.

Now choose an icon for your Web app, if you have a pre-downloaded icon, then click on the Cloud icon and browse for your icon and choose it.

Otherwise if you don’t have a pre-downloaded icon, then click on the little “Get icon” button next to the Address bar. This will fetch you icon from the website automatically.

It will give you several sizes of icons to choose from. 32 x 32 will be perfect for us. So click and choose the icon to continue.

Now choose the category you want to appear it under. This is the category in our menu. I have chosen Internet as I am adding YouTube.

Select the browser you want to open this with. You can see all the browsers that you have installed in your system in the drop-down in “Browser” tab.

Move the slider at the bottom if you want to have a navigation bar, just like in the browser windows. I have chosen to disable navigation as this won’t be of much use.

Click OK to finalize your web app and close the Web app manager window.

Launch your newly created web app by searching it in the menu. You can also find it under the category that you chose previously.

Here is what a Web App looks like. I have created it without navigation bar. So I won’t be able to navigate like we do in normal browsers, but we can enable it while creating it.

To delete a Web App open Web Apps Manager and select the app that you want to delete and click on the little minus (-) icon at the bottom to remove it.

When to use a Web App?

You can create and use a web app when you visit a website again and again. This will save you a lot of time instead of opening a browser window manually and then navigation to these websites.

You can also use a Web app while going through a tutorial or something similar as it makes easy for you to quickly switch between open windows.

You can also pin a web app to the panel for easy access and one click launch.

That’s it for this article. You can find the sources from the links below.

Web App Manager source code: Find on GitHub

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