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Show HN: Linklever makes the concept of default browser obsolete (linklever.net)

7 points by sltr ↗ HN
Hi fellow nerds. Linklever is a local and offline browser launcher. If you're often copy-pasting URLs between browsers, then Linklever might be for you.

It registers as your system's default browser. In the app, you configure rules and filters. Later, when you click a link outside of a browser, the rules determine which browser Linklever sends the link to. The filters transform the URL before sending it to the browser. For routing links between browsers, there are Firefox and Chrome extensions.

Browser launchers are no new concept; AlternativeTo lists 17 others, but so far Linklever is the only one that supports macOS, Windows, and Linux. It's also pretty darn fast, being AOT compiled. Launch latency is typically 10-20ms, which is unbelievable for .NET. Tech stack: C#, Avalonia, SQLite.

I'm also the author of the open source app BrowseRouter, whose moderate star count on GitHub was the inspiration to make Linklever.

I'm following a business bootstrapping stair-step method. This is my second product. I started working on it in Dec 2024 and launched it officially in July. I've made five sales so far, which has been a lot of fun.

I'm open to your feedback. Thanks for reading.

6 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 31.4 ms ] thread
mrbluecoat
Nice! Does it support opening in incognito mode for dev work needing to avoid caches?
sltr
I have just added support to specify args that will be passed to each browser. For example, the chrome --incognito flag. You'll find it in the Apps tab.
atmanactive
Where is settings data saved? Can we freely export/import the data? Is there a windows portable edition or mode? Is it fully offline? Thanks.
sltr
Import from/export to JSON is now supported! Look for the buttons in the settings tab.
atmanactive
Fantastic. Well, it looks like Linklever reached peak functionality. Congrats. What could be next? How about UI driven training? So, a new, special destination which would display a window where user could choose one of the pre-defined destinations with a checkbox at the bottom "remember my choice". Thus, a user could choose if they wanted to be asked every time or if they wanted the choice remembered. Also, even when a stored routing is being executed, if SHIFT+CTRL is being held, then stop the execution and present the window with destination choices (remove internal routing). Just thinking out loud here. Thanks.
sltr
Done!

except for the SHIFT+CTRL feature. Cross-platform global keypress handlers is tricky business, so that will have to wait until this app proves it can sell