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Comment by rbbydotdev | Hacker News Reader

- 100% free, no subscriptions, no accounts, no cloud

- Local-first: all slicing and toolpath generation runs on your machine

- Works in any browser, even offline once loaded

YES!

I think a new type of open source is emerging centering around what is now possible in browsers. Browsers have a great track record when running legacy projects. Relying on a backend could be a liability for longevity.

I built opal editor myself, a local first open source free markdown editor with these same principles, https://github.com/rbbydotdev/opal

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That's an interesting take. I've never really thought of it that way before, but I think you are right that you'll have an easier task running an HTML file with embedded JavaScript from 15+ years ago in a browser than running a 15+ year old binary.

> Works in any browser, even offline once loaded

That, my friend, is not how offline works. You will be required to have internet access in one way or another. Offline works 100% locally no matter if you have internet or not.

But you have to get the software somehow? Once you get it, it works offline. The same here I guess: once you download the source code/binaries into browser's cache (that can store things indefinitely) it's offline.

> But you have to get the software somehow?

We call this: download. Usually better than RCE.

True, but you are at the whims of the browser cache, and how long it wants to keep it around.

If you are worried, download and self host. As suggested on the website (when discussing trust and PII).

There's an electron build, although why you'd use it over a native slicer is beyond me.

Umm, I’m confused about this comment… the concept of a web app that gets saved into browser cache and then can be loaded and used while offline definitely isn’t new. See Photopea etc

With a stand-alone application once you download it in your file system you know exactly where it is and how to create backups etc.

A "browser cache" is just an opaque bit of storage. What if you need to update/reinstall your browser or want to switch? I wouldn't trust important data to it.

I generally feel uncomfortable how so many applications are browser-only these days. The thought of having important data in a tab that you might close by mistake at any moment is uncomfortable. Browsers should really only be used for fleeting content, not productive work.

That used to be the case, but there’s a new API worth checking out, you can read and write files right on your computer https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System...

You're misunderstanding how websites work. You can install it locally on your computer and run it via localhost https://github.com/GridSpace/grid-apps

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