Links from web app should open in default browser

kbd

I've started using Orion for its great "Install this site as an app" feature. It's the best way I know of to create a site-specific browser on Mac. I now use Orion for my Gmail (and a few other things).

However, while my default system browser is still Firefox[1], Gmail opens external links in Orion. This makes the site-specific browser much less useful, since Orion isn't logged into my other sites.

To make the site-specific browser really feel like an app and not be a leaky abstraction, it should open links in your default web browser. If your default browser is already Orion, then nothing changes from current behavior, but otherwise it feels passive-aggressive, like "you must use Orion for everything or this feature won't work well for you".

[1] Orion is great, but I'm not making that jump right now. For one reason, certain extensions I depend on (Vimium) still don't always work properly.

ForumNinja404

kbd Makes sense, links should always open in the default browser. Make sure you upvote the Vimium related issues as well.

Vlad

kbd From the context of Orion, the web app is just an instance of Orion. So the links you click do not go through default web browser flow at all. They open in Orion, in this case in the same Orion profile that the web app was created in. (this was actually a feature suggested that we implemented, it is here somewhere on the forum).

Expecting the links in Orion instance to open in external browser is currently the same as if you are in Firefox and would expect a link you click to open in Chrome because it is set to default browser.

kbd

From the context of Orion, the web app is just an instance of Orion.

I get that's how it works, but that makes the web app a leaky abstraction. It shouldn't matter that it's an Orion instance under the hood, it should behave like a standalone app.

Consider, this is what's shown in my Dock when I have my (Orion-based) Gmail instance open. It (as is ideal) doesn't even have Orion itself open. I shouldn't have to care that it's Orion under the hood.

Expecting the links in Orion instance to open in external browser is currently the same as if you are in Firefox and would expect a link you click to open in Chrome because it is set to default browser.

Hard disagree. The web app is no longer a browser, it doesn't have an address bar, and so on. It's a standalone app and should behave like any standalone app that invokes your default web browser when opening a link.

Vlad

kbd

Hard disagree. The web app is no longer a browser, it doesn't have an address bar, and so on. It's a standalone app and should behave like any standalone app that invokes your default web browser when opening a link.

I said 'currently', describing how it works now. There are many benefits in treating the web app as a browser instance - you automatically get your current browser profile settings - even when you change them, all your installed extensions work etc. This could be changed, I am just not sure we want to do that.

kocane

Any chance this could be reconsidered? Orion is a great browser especially for its efficiency, and I use it for webapps, however I do use Firefox by default and such it would be nice to use it to open external links in webapps.