←back to thread

Show HN: Sava OS – A desktop interface for your web browser

(savaos.com)
103 points owenfar | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 16:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.328s | source

Hello, I'm Owen, co-founder of Sava OS.

I think you've heard this a thousand times by now; "We spend most of our time on the web browser, yet nothing has changed." And then a "revolutionary" product comes out that puts our links & tabs collapsed on the side, with some extra features. Magical, right :)?

Well, we tried a lot of these products, and we also tried building one ourselves about 8years ago. But we felt like no UI can handle the same kind of organization our desktop can, and that's when the idea first came to our mind ~5years ago. For the past year, we worked on the side to build the MVP you see today. But along these years, a lot of thoughts kept popping up, and that's why this product has an OS in it's name (it's still cooking :).

Unlike other desktop-like products that are accessible on the browser, Sava OS is not only built and made to run natively on the web browser, but it actually has some useful features to help with your browsing management - and that's only the beginning.

There's still a lot to consider when it comes to shaping a modern, desktop-like UI that meets today's needs.. We’ve got some exciting ideas and aim to go beyond the traditional approach.

We would really love to hear your take on this.

Show context
mzajc ◴[17 Oct 24 20:18 UTC] No.41873337[source]▶
I have given your service a try, and while the UX was impressive, I was bothered by an apparent lack of encryption. The landing page, the privacy policy, and your mission statement all make many mentions of encryption and security, yet (besides TLS) there doesn't seem to be any encryption going on as far as my browser is concerned.

I created a new folder, created a text file in the folder, and added some text to the file. The name of the folder, the text file, and the content itself were sent to the server unencrypted (besides TLS).

I'm sure your server encrypts the data immediately, but this adds unnecessary trust when client-side encryption could be employed. It also enables an attacker or a potential future operator to sniff the data before it is encrypted. That's no good!

replies(3): >>41873505 #>>41873518 #>>41873674 #
pino82 ◴[17 Oct 24 20:53 UTC] No.41873674[source]▶
That's a lot of trust for a project that is proud for having it tested with one browser, and wants to hear from you on Facebook or Discord. My trust in such a project would be quite minimal.
replies(1): >>41873970 #
1. owenfar ◴[17 Oct 24 21:24 UTC] No.41873970[source]▶
It was tested and should work on all browsers (though the extension is only chromium based at the moment).

But for the sake of simplicity, we placed that badge since it's the most familiar icon to the wider audience. Initially most of our visitors thought it's an OS they have to download, this helped solve some of the doubts.

I had to create Facebook just for this, because whether we like it or not, it's a huge platform that shouldn't be missed.