Mozilla Lab's Prism Beta Puts Web Apps on the Desktop

Mozilla Labs has unleashed its first beta release of Prism -- an experimental program that enables users to break out Web applications from the browser and run them directly from the desktop, even if the browser crashes or stalls.

Through Prism, Mozilla Labs aims to harness the increasing power and ubiquity of Web applications and put them to work directly on the desktop in their own separate windows like normal applications. The organization said this will reduce browser loading, leading to improved browser performance and stability.

After more than a year of receiving feedback from early experiment participants such as Yahoo, Zimbra and DesignLinks International, Mozilla Labs says it's ready to take Prism one step further down the road to commercial adoption.

"The initial version of Prism was more of a prototype, a foundation on which to build out additional features to improve Web-app usability," said Matthew Gertner, a member of the Prism development team at Mozilla Labs. "With the release of Prism 1.0 beta, we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling Web app bundles."

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Any Web application that runs in a modern standards-compliant browser can also run in Prism irrespective of whether the computing platform is based on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. On Windows PCs, Prism apps are launched from the Start menu and become accessible in the task bar, Mozilla Labs said. On Macs, they are launched and accessed from the OS X applications folder.

Prism 1.0 beta is now available in two user-selectable downloads: a stand-alone program and a Firefox browser extension. Users of the new plug-in will be able to convert sites running Web applications into Prism apps by selecting 'Convert Web site to Application' in the Tools menu.

By contrast, the stand-alone...