It's not configurable right now, but I have seen the feature in other products. If you want to chat about it off-thread, there's a contact form in the options page. Happy to chat.
I'm distributing msix (msixbundle) because it allows me to package a downloadable installer and a windows store upload. You should be able to double click the msixbundle to run the installer, powershell isn't necessary.
MSIX installers feel a bit odd, I think, because they're far less common than either msi or self extracting exe. They also virtualize the app. MSIX apps, for example, can't write to the canonical registry. It's not all upside, but it works well for my projects.
The SDK install is expected (if not already installed). It should hopefully have been automatically downloaded during the install process.
I realize now that the "Support" link is ambiguous. The price/free issue I'll think about how to make that clear, it's a good point. Going to wait for traffic to subside before making updates, but noted. Thanks
Thanks, yeah it is C#/.net9 and WinUI3. I started with C#/WPF, but wanted to get it on the Windows Store and couldn't figure out that would work with WPF.
I don't mean to imply it's not possible, but I ran into issues packaging with Desktop Bridge and the web started pushing me toward extreme solutions, so I changed course. If there's a lesson here, it's to package early (and know what you are up against).
Agreeable LLMs and embedded bias are surely a risk, but I don't think this a helpful frame. Most questions don't have correct answers, so it would follow that you'd want practical answers for those, and correct answers for the remainder.
Apple locks users in with software/services. nVidia locks in add-in board manufacturers with exclusive arrangements and partner programs that tie access to chips to contracts that prioritize nVidia. It happens upstream of the consumer. It's always a matter of degree with this stuff as to where it becomes anti-trust, but in this case it's overt enough for governments to take notice.
Became unusable for me (Firefox/Win) a few months back on my laptop with integrated intel graphics. Fine on other computers with more capable hardware. The solution was an extension called h264ify. There was something about the vp8/9 codec that was bringing Firefox to its knees. h264ify avoids those codecs altogether on Youtube.
I've been porting a Blazor/.net 8 project (https://interro.bot) to Maui for the past couple months. I just released Android last week, and Mac/iOS is in the pipeline. There are plenty of gotchas and I wouldn't say Maui feels mature yet, but the issues in my case are mostly on the build side. I'm optimistic though, the platform does improve with regular releases, and the end product (once through the build headaches) is solid.
Are you using Blazor Hybrid or are you going native? I've been trying to learn Avalonia and already moved away from ReactiveUI in favor of MVVM. My server application is built in Blazor, so kinda wondering how well concepts transfer over.
This project started back in the day as native MVVM (UWP). Switched to Blazor Server/electron a few years back. For Maui, I had to move to Hybrid but I'm glad I did. Hybrid is pretty great, seems better in every way except routing and some aspnet functionality is lost. Faster app startups, and feels generally more responsive.
Avalonia looks pretty nice, but I've never tried it so I'm not sure how it compares.
Congratulations on shipping, the site looks great. I've been working on a desktop app in the same space (website health/administration). It's been a similarly long journey. I've found marketing to be an uphill battle. It's a crowded marketplace, which in many ways indicates a healthy ecosystem, but difficult to crack nonetheless. Having a focused audience (e.g. bloggers) will help there. If you ever want to discuss marketing or talk shop, definitely reach out (ben at hn-username dot com)... maybe we could both learn something.
I'm not sure I've the best antibot solution, but it's handled through some crawler options exposed to the user. Out of the box, I use a (fast) http crawler with my app's user-agent. It is not at all resilient to antibot. I direct users who are encountering issues to first try a user-agent override, and if that doesn't work, to next enable javascript crawling (think headless chrome), which is slower and heavier, but clears up a lot of issues. I don't have a strategy for aggressive antibot (captcha/etc.) other than to tell the customer to dial it back on their website.
Edit: I've seen antibot SAAS providers, which claim to provide workarounds at a cost. You route traffic through their network, and they have teams that are constantly tweaking things to keep the requests working, much like scrapers adapting to website redesigns. It would be a treadmill to do on your own. There more info on this at https://substack.thewebscraping.club/ In my case, selling single-user perpetual licenses, it doesn't make sense.
Yes, I thought you played with those apps and their proxies to get around anti-bot protection.
I also don't have anti-bot implemented right now, but that's my next step. I mean, my app "has one job" and it's not doing it well because of anti-bot protection...
I think with the distributed nature of a desktop app (running headless chrome), outside of cloud infrastructure/IPs, the internet is generally less defensive. It has bought some leeway, but I definitely should look into proxy support.
I remember Nate Silver speaking of the golden age of online poker, when amateurs were the dominant audience, and a decent (non-pro) strategy player could make a living. Word got out, and just like that, it was over.
