Arc
Dev tools
browser native app runtime
SHOW HN2013
152points
58comments
#123of 1,739 in 2013
Top 8%of 2013 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
6 positive, 8 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 13 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score -0.12.
Idea: 5 for, 6 againstExecution: 0 for, 5 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Neat idea; better than maintaining browser plugins
From 3 comments
The blog post is a little over a month old. The installer is 60MB now. Arc is a daemon that runs on your system, like DropBox. Browsers can use arc.js and instruct Arc to run…
grun on HNPlatform-independence is a big advantage. XPCOM forces you to write and test for each platform you want to support.
icebraining on HNThis is really cool, and I'm disappointed there's so much hate going on in here. I agree with points that there is a distribution challenge, but I think if Arc can get small…
film42 on HN
Platform independence over XPCOM
From 1 comment
Platform-independence is a big advantage. XPCOM forces you to write and test for each platform you want to support.
icebraining on HN
Objections
Requires installing a 60MB daemon, so not truly browser-only
From 3 comments
I feel like I'm missing something. If users have to download a 140MB, what, browser plugin? Is it a browser plugin? Then how does the "in the browser" argument hold up? Sure, if…
skrebbel on HN"Native apps for the browser" = it's a lie since you basically need to download a third party software on your computer ( >60MB ) which runs as a daemon (sic),it's just yet…
camus on HNI certainly think this is very neat but the bottom line is that a user would have to be able to install arc the first time they want to use an app built on it. No matter how…
Toenex on HN
Security concerns about running downloaded binaries in a VM
From 3 comments
so this thing downloads arbitrary binaries with no verification and makes them executable on my local machine? cool story bro. probably some cool hacks in here but no one is…
argvzero on HNFull access to my private network and excessive resource consumption are two things to come to mind
tokenizerrr on HNGoogle's NaCl set out to solve this same problem (pretty much), but I'm beginning to think Grun's Arc might completely shadow Google's work here for many reasons, not the least…
aufreak3 on HN
Mac-only at launch
From 1 comment
Looks nice, but if it's only Mac compatible it's not going to take off any time soon. Get the Win/Linux versions out ASAP.
benbristow on HN
Requests
Linux and Windows support
From 2 comments
Looks nice, but if it's only Mac compatible it's not going to take off any time soon. Get the Win/Linux versions out ASAP.
benbristow on HNHave any plans to support Linux or Windows ?
jcarden on HN
Mobile support
From 1 comment
How about iOS, Android, WinPho? Mobile web use _is_ on the rise you know ;-) Would it be possible to run those virtual machines there as well?
niels_bom on HN
Questions
How does JavaScript talk to Arc without a plugin?
From 1 comment
Thanks for the explanation. Maybe make that part more apparent on the site. But how does the JS in the browser talk to Arc without a plugin?
skrebbel on HN
Why VirtualBox instead of qemu?
From 1 comment
Have you considered qemu? Performance won't be as good, but the binary is considerably smaller and doesn't require admin to install.
joebo on HN
Alternatives named
Google Native Client (NaCl/PNaCl)
From 3 comments
Google's NaCl set out to solve this same problem (pretty much), but I'm beginning to think Grun's Arc might completely shadow Google's work here for many reasons, not the least…
aufreak3 on HNWe do need an open, documented alternative to PNaCl.
misuba on HNPNaCl is a liberally-licensed open source project. You can see its source code and compile it whenever you want. How much more open would you like it to be? As for documented,…
eliben on HN
Browser plugins like Flash and Java applets
From 2 comments
It still sounds like a kind of browser plugin to me, but the "plugging in" is done at the OS level instead of within the browser + the OS (as with, say, Flash having an…
meowface on HNAt the same time I feel both excited and a bit sceptical. This seems great because it opens a lot of possibilities. But also has the potential to turn into another "Please…
spoiler on HN
Firefox XPCOM add-ons
From 1 comment
How is this different from XPCOM browser addon for Firefox? Why the heavy VM instead of just using C++ modules?
eulerphi on HN