http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/19/12555052/google-shutting-down-chrome-apps
It seems google isnt making enough profits and they need to boost it by not spending money supporting any OS that is not their own. While it might be a strategic move on the part of google, this is potentially a very bad outcome for anybody that is dependent on chrome apps for any significant part of their business.
It might be that only a small percentage of people use chrome apps, but my guess is a lot of companies and projects that depend on chrome apps for a larger reach will be significantly affected.
Here is my solution:
- Create a decentralized chrome app store using any one of the existing decentralized storage solutions that are already out there
- Create a migration kit for all the vendors with chrome apps to migrate to the non-google decentralized chrome app store
OK, I admit 1. is a lot easier than 2, however I see two immediate paths for 2. The first would be to fork chromium and modify it to use 1. The second would be to enhance emscriptem (that is what pnacl is based on) with a chrome app compatible library.
And for either step, using existing versions for chrome for as long as possible to give time for the above to create a solution.
If anybody has the skills to do any part of the above, just respond. I am working on getting a bounty allocated for this.
James
You are right, lots of people use these apps and will be affected.
Great ideas and input James @jl777! :)
Isn't Waves wallet a Chrome app?
yes, good thing there is a year+ to deal with this
Well not particularily, the Chrome app is just one way of using the wallet. You can also just download the wallet and unpack it locally... This way would still be possible, whatever Google plans for Chrome apps!
1 and 2 are good ideas. perhaps we could organize a crowdfunding campaign on waves to finance the efforts.
I'm not sure if 2 is so hard to achieve, there are things like electron that could be used...
It seems that becoming too dependent on Google is dangerous. They done this before a couple of times. They had an aggregator app, then they discontinued it, they had piscassa..it's gone...what next?
Perhaps I should look for a different search engine.