I just came across OpenWebStart, written to replace the deprecated Web Start.
Does anyone have any experience with it? Is this a viable way to distribute games or applications?
I don’t think it really solves any problems that anyone has any more. I suppose if you want some sort of auto-updater maybe but then surely you’d be better off with a far more generic solution.
Did Web Start ever actually solve problems anyone had? If the fact that I have never really seen it used anywhere is any indication, it did not.
Applets were one thing, because they worked as actual webpage embeds, creating a seamless user experience. The only real other way to do that at the time was Flash. But Web Start? At least from a UX perspective, it was never more than a regular download, but with weird extra steps, making a regular executable download seem a lot more professional. Really, what is the actual use case here?
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