Introducing Ubuntu Web Apps: setting the web free of the browser

Introducing Ubuntu Web Apps: setting the web free of the browser:

Making web applications behave like their desktop counterparts improves the user experience dramatically; it’s faster and it reduces the proliferation of browser tabs and windows that can quickly make a desktop unmanageable.

The apps can even take advantage of Ubuntu’s new HUD system, making it even easier to navigate. So Web properties leap to the forefront of modern UI design, making for amazingly productive, fast and fluid applications on the desktop.

(Via Hacker News)

Making the web apps appear in the command switcher: +1

Displaying them as a tab in a normal Firefox browser window: -1

I was expecting to see something like Fluid or Chrome application shortcuts or Chromeless. And whatever happened to Prism? It turned into WebRunner, but the project page gets a 404 — here’s why.

Anyway, this looks like it’s on its way to a cool solution that people don’t know that they want–which, I guess, is the same bucket Linux falls into: Great solution to the problems of popular computing, but the populace stays stuck in their ruts.