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Comment by est | Hacker News Reader

That's too bad. Chrome Apps allows TCP/UDP communication and it could create interesting apps.

I'm still using JSTorrent (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jstorrent/anhdpjpo...).

It's impossible to implement the BitTorrent protocol using a webapp, which means that once Chrome Apps are gone I'll have to revert to using a native client, which I don't trust one bit.

Why do you think it is impossible. There are plenty of JS BitTorrent implementations.

They however only work with other browser clients via webrtc p2p.

It could be done with a local TCP / UDP <=> WebSocket gateway, especially if it's written in a safe language like Rust.

Why use a webapp AND a local native gateway instead of just a native app? If your goal is to just not open any native win32/cocoa/etc UIs for some reason, there are existing native torrent clients with web interfaces served over http and those have been available for like a decade plus.

Webapp + native gateway also means that the torrent traffic ends up being suspended/throttled if the tab isn't foregrounded or if you close it, something you wouldn't have to deal with if the native gateway was just a native torrent client. Chrome Apps had a background privileged context that could keep running even if no tabs were open (though Google naturally discouraged this unless the app needed it), something you can't really get with a PWA currently (though Service Workers come close if you keep the tab open, I think? Maybe?)

One benefit would be to protect yourself from security issues in the main torrent code. Anyway it was just an idea, not a serious proposal.

Can we run native apps written in Rust/Go in Chromebook ?

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