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I'm looking for a method to deliver my thick client software to intranet users through a browser. Ideally, the user could click a single button on the page, and something local to the machine would execute the software (similar to how Java Web Start works.)

Are there any alternatives to Java? I really like the experience provided by Spoon.

I see something called 0Install, which sounds like a non-Java web start. What is the experience like? Are there other alternatives I should consider?

Jonas
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retrodrone
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1 Answers1

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It depends a bit on which platforms you want to support. 0install works best on Linux/Unix (e.g. the GUI is native GTK). On MacOS X the GTK UI looks a little out of place, although there are plans for a native UI. Windows has its own .NET-based GUI; it's quite new but improving fast.

Note that you can use 0install even for Java programs, which has some advantages. For example, I recently used it for a Java program with a dependency on GraphViz (a non-Java utility).

[ note: I am a 0install developer ]

Thomas Leonard
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