Awesome November 5, 2009 posted by Nigel

Prism – cool freeware turns web apps into desktop programs

prism small Prism cool freeware turns web apps into desktop programs

Prism from Mozilla Labs lets you convert any web application into a desktop accessible program, complete with its own icon and dedicated screen. Why would you want this? Well it makes it easier to access some types of web apps if you can use them in their own space, without having them displayed in a generic browser. Things like docs, control panels, accounting services, even web mail.

prism2 Prism cool freeware turns web apps into desktop programs

Google Chrome has this feature and I love it, I immediately made Gmail into a desktop app so I could fire up my inbox without having to run up a full web browser instance. Very cool. The Prism product is implemented as a Firefox addon, which is superb (you’ll find it under the Tools menu when it’s installed) and you can set the app to run minimised from the task bar, start automatically and display pop-up notifications. Excellent. A keeper.

Instead of running all your web apps in the browser, Prism lets you run them in their own window just like normal applications. A single faulty app or web page can no longer take down everything you are working on. In the future, we will be releasing web app bundles from the Prism developer community that let you customize your application to use many of the operating system features common to a desktop application.

Tags: prism, freeware, application+maker, firefox+add-on

About the Author:

Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don't we all?

Nigel – who has written 5202 posts on The Red Ferret Journal.

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http://www.dodarweb.com Matt

I just gave the FF plugin a quick whirl.
If it would integrate with a password manager like Lastpass it would be great.
I'm so reliant on Lastpass now when it comes to logging into my online apps that I'm not prepared to give it up. I don't want to have to login manually and remember what all my passwords are any more.
For me, the lack of that feature is a deal breaker and actually makes it more of a chore to use than my FF browser.