Mozilla Prism brings web applications to your desktop blurring the lines between web apps and desktop apps.
Prism is based on the same technology as Firefox browser but is designed to run your web applications just like its desktop counterparts. It gives you the best of both worlds letting you access apps from anywhere in the Internet via a browser and on your desktop via Prism while you are at your computer.
Prism is also available as a Firefox extension that lets you dynamically split a web application to your desktop right from your browser.
You can read more in my Mozilla Prism review here. I recommend taking a look at that before continuing if you are new to Prism.
What started as a Mozilla Labs experimental project has reached v 1.0 beta today with some significant improvements. Also, Prism has a new website.
Prism New Features
- Ability to set fonts and application-specific settings
- Supports proxy setup just like Firefox
- Clear private data on demand
- New API functionality for Prism powered websites to take advantage of
- Prism apps are automatically updated with newer Prism versions
- Tray icon, submenus & system tray menus support.
- SSL exceptions support
- Full OS X 10.4 support
- Run applications automatically when you start your computer
- Minimize and close apps to system tray
- Protocol handlers can associate Prism apps with specific URLS like mailto:
Download Prism
Download Prism Firefox Extension
Previous Prism Articles
I have been using Prism for iGoogle gadget for Remember the Milk since its early days. Other web apps I run in Prism are Evernote, gTalk iGoogle gadget in linux, Passpack, etc. Lets look at some good posts on Prism here
- Mozilla Prism: Bringing Web Applications To Your Desktop
- GTalk Gadget + Prism = GTalk Alternative for Linux and Mac Users?
- Top Web Applications Best Suited for Mozilla Prism
- 3 Great Ways to Run Gmail From Desktop
You can find out how to use Prism from one of the above articles or through this official Prism how-to video.
Needed Improvements
Although there are workarounds to get Firefox extensions working in Firefox, Prism really needs full out support for Firefox extensions. Just Greasemonkey and Stylish add-ons can make Prism so much more useful and I will stop using Gmail and Google Reader in Firefox.
I am sure it is coming soon as the Add-ons window has been in Prism since a previous release. Take a gander at the Prism Google Groups site if you have questions on it.
With technologies like Adobe AIR, Silverlight are gaining momentum, it is nice to see this little jewel from Mozilla Labs making its stride into becoming a powerful tool.
And I am rooting for it.
[image & news via Mozilla Labs Blog]
I wrote about this very recently on my blog. You can actually combine both Prism and Google Gears together to create a web app on your desktop that can be run offline. Which means you can actually have Remember the Milk, Google Calander running like a program on their own independently without the net.
It’s an awesome concept and very lightweight as well.
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K,
It is stuff like this that fascinates me about your site. Seriously, where do you find all your info @ man?
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Bunk,
Thanks for the appreciation! Glad to have this outlet for all the cool stuff I come across and even more glad that you are enjoying it. 🙂