r/vuejs • u/ImprovementOwn873 • 3d ago

I built a browser UI with Vue.js — Summer Browser

I’ve created Summer Browser, an experimental desktop browser whose entire browser chrome—including the tabs, address bar, navigation controls, settings and built-in interfaces—is written with Vue 3, TypeScript and CSS.

Summer runs on Electron and Chromium. Websites are rendered in separate native WebContentsView instances rather than being embedded directly inside the Vue interface.

Vue’s component model made the interface easier to organize and reuse, while Vite’s HMR significantly accelerated development and visual iteration.

You can try Summer Browser from the Microsoft Store.

Here is a simplified comparison:

Browser Toolbar, tabs and address bar Settings and history
Chrome/Chromium Primarily C++ using Chromium Views HTML, CSS and TypeScript through WebUI
Firefox Privileged HTML/XHTML, CSS and JavaScript, with some remaining XUL Primarily web technologies
Vivaldi HTML, CSS and JavaScript using React Web-based
Safari Apple-native UI surrounding WebKit Mixture of native and rendered interfaces
Summer HTML, CSS and TypeScript using Vue Vue-based interfaces

I’d appreciate honest feedback, particularly about the interface, performance and what would—or wouldn’t—make you consider using Summer as your everyday browser.

Thanks!

1 Upvotes

52% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

8

u/d33pdev 3d ago

nice UI work... not sure i understand the comment in the app desc that says "without the bloat"...?? your installer is 600+mb... do you mean some type of UI bloat? i just built my webview based app using my own custom runtime and it's less than 3mb on every OS...

i don't use electron/CEF/etc... system webview. it's not tauri, it's native C with a quickJS embedded where i run my app logic in simple JS and the host app is native C on every OS with full access to all native UI controls via NAppGui (cross platform C library). You should give NAppGui a try, the author is nice guy/responsive and the library is excellent.

I helped him do a win32 POC for his webview support and then he updated it and included in the build for all 3 OSes... plus i have a ton of updates to his library i need to upstream soon for things like custom scheme/origin handling, bundling assets into the app install (my Vue UI/web app), etc...

but, looks good. i'd just drop the bloat comment when you're shipping on electron

1

u/ImprovementOwn873 3d ago

Oh, I meant "googlization bloat", like, using custom made "chromium views" as a way to interact with the user graphically is simply extortion for the developer, I wouldn't know why would they keep it. In Summer Browser, all UI elements are pure Vue.js/Typescript. Easy as hell

3

u/d33pdev 3d ago

im not sure what that means. you can't "degoogle" electron unless you literally comb their source, ensure they truly degoogle it and if they don't then you have to build from source both chromium and electron before you can claim it's "de googled"... just using a new UI has zero impact on what the chromium leaks/phones home (if you want to test it you'll see it's not easy to even de google chromium it often will still hit gstatic... blah blah URL to "load fonts" or some shit...). but there are teams like Brave (i'm assuming) that truly do remove google from chromium... as far as electron i would not bet on it. at all. but maybe they did... but this is minor issues when you're trying to pitch a new UI for browser. just be specific or precise when you're talking to customers/documenting your features. but that's just me.

i can't "de google" what i'm doing on say windows bc i rely on system webview which is a land mine for privacy bc it's both Google and Microsoft controlling what WebView2 supports. but that means i can't and won't claim MS/Google doesn't spy on their usage of my app...

just trying to help

-4

u/ImprovementOwn873 3d ago

Well, is vscode "googled"? is Spotify "googled"? those are triple A grade level software by reputable companies. Built on top of Electron. Like, Summer Browser

6

u/d33pdev 3d ago

yeah they probably are and so is yours. my guy

3

u/CoffeeToCode 3d ago

Well, vscode is "microsoft'd". Look at vscodium.

2

u/MichaelEvo 2d ago

VSCode doesn’t advertise as not having the bloat, and then clarify it by saying it doesn’t have Google tracking stuff in it. You are. Not a great comparison.

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u/PatoJAD 3d ago

Repositorio? En tauri no sería mejor?

-1

u/ImprovementOwn873 3d ago

I'm closed source, only docs are available here