They say they’re doing a webbased updater so that their software will work with all operating systems… not said is that their online updater only works with chromium based browsers… so…
https://web.8bitdo.com/browser-support
Yeah it’s probably using webusb https://caniuse.com/?search=webusb
not said is that their online updater only works with chromium based browsers
Currently, it only supports Chromium-based browsers.
Second paragraph, yo.
pft, implying I read it and not just clicked the links…
I refused to install a Chromium based browser until recently, which was needed as a dependency for some software. At least it supports the base Chromium, which is free from all those bullshit of the other browsers its based on. I just recently updated the driver in a virtual machine with Windows 10 and their software installed. So using Chromium would be an improvement here. Still sad I have to use a different browser than Firefox, but Chromium will be just my “firmware-updater” and not my browser at all.
All of these wed based uber-projects are built on Chrome. This is bad. This gives more control to google and strengthens their strangle hold over web technologies.
It’s also bad because why the fuck should a web browser have that much access to the hardware to begin with?!
Considering they made Chrome an entire OS… It was sort of necessary for that and probably minimal to bring it to the regular desktop browser.
Otherwise it doesn’t really need to, other than simplicity for the end user. Being able to just go to the website regardless of platform and not having to install anything, or keep anything up to date, is a nice end user experience.
Considering they made Chrome an entire OS… It was sort of necessary for that and probably minimal to bring it to the regular desktop browser.
That’s both plausible and insightful on your part. Thanks!
That said, just because they could easily do it on the non-ChromeOS version of the browser doesn’t mean they should have.
Chrome OS existed long before this API, it has a Linux base to handle this kind of thing.
it doesn’t really need to, other than simplicity for the end user
Not being a jerk, trying to be succinct, but this is you missing or disregarding a crucially important point, in a dozen words.
Also why the fuck is the OS giving the web browser the option of giving it that access to the hardware?
As long as it’s doable from userspace the OS doesn’t know what’s a browser or what is being controlled with external code. Blame the concept of ambient authority
Cause WebUSB still only exists on Chrome, even though Mozilla and Apple had 9 years to catch up: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebUSB_API#browser_compatibility
“to catch up”, while they deliberately choose not to implement this. they don’t just not do it, they outlined why.
their competitor has an advantage and real leverage, I’d say that’s enough reason in economics? I get why it isn’t implemented, but all that means is that chromium has the high ground when it comes to this.
This is exactly why economics, or any discipline, should not be permitted to dictate the function or structure of a system in a domain outside of its area of expertise.
yep in an ideal world, which we live very far from
Maybe some of the other browsers should implement the tech needed to do this kind of thing then? Cause as far as I know, Chrome is the only browser that can give a websites access to USB.
Because it’s complex, a security problem and largely unneccessary.
unneccessary
It seems pretty necessary for doing this kind of universal update system to me. If you’ve got a way to do it without it though, please share.
Jesus fucking christ can’t you people ever just let something be good for once
Adding security, compatability, and vendor lock-in issues in exchange for convenience is not a good thing. Remember ActiveX and Silverlight? They forced users into uning IE. I am still finding industrial applications whos only config page is some ancient, IE only, nightmare.
Cant wait for Adobe Flash to make a comeback resulting in us being forced to use it to do something asinine like pay rent
In this case the spec is published, so it wouldn’t be a lock-in or compatibility issue if the other vendors didn’t lock themselves out.
Security, I get, but when I’ve used it to flash esp32s before the user agent pops up a box asking me which device I want to give access to before the website sees anything, so it’s not transparent and it doesn’t give it access to everything on my system.
I use Firefox all the time, but keep a Chromium on my system basically for stuff like this occasionally, and also web calls because Firefox’s implementation of the audio API doesn’t let me change microphones in the webapp, it just exposes one mic, and I’ve had issues with that before, so I join all calls in Chromium.
So for the very kind of people who tend to not use Chrome because they’re privacy aware and actually tend to use Ad-Blockers, and who are very likely to be fine with standalone apps, they don’t make a standalone firmware updater app and instead make a Chrome only firmware updater.
I mean, I get it that in Linux accessing a USB-serial device from userspace can require an extra step (add user to “dialout” group), but it’s hardly something that takes more than 1 paragraph to fully explain and you can do the check for access denied in the app and only prompt the user to do it if that error occurs.
Believe it or not, people use Linux for more than just privacy reasons.
I thought it was because Firefox refuses to add webusb? I’ve never seen a web flasher that worked in firefox, always had to use chrome for meshtastic fashing, android web flashers, slimevr firmware updaters, etc.
I heard they recently changed their stance, but as far as I know you’re right on the money.
They did? This is literally the only reason I have still chromium installed.
Web serial works in Firefox now. I’ve been using it with ESPHome.
You don’t need exactly Google’s Chrome though.
ungoogled-chromiumworks as well and it doesn’t send a bit to any of Big Tech’s servers.I have it installed and I have already bookmarked 10+ different flashers and updaters I’ve needed so far. And I genuinely think it’s better than 10+ poorly made Electron apps I’d have to install instead.
Though I wouldn’t daily drive a browser that allows websites to screw my USB devices.
Installed the 8bitdo windows software using Lutris on Bazzite and it worked just fine for me.
Working your way around stupid obstacles is the Linux way…
Very close to the kind of people who wouldn’t buy 8bitdo, hmm…
Good stuff 8BitDo. I’m currently a GameSir enjoyer, but this kinda stuff is why 8BitDo is still considered the gold standard for controllers.
A downloadable program would be better for if the website were to ever go offline.
Yeah, but a website should make this compatible with all operating systems, not just Linux. BSD should profit from this as well.
I’d prefer if they’d release it as a flatpak. Making it browser based chains you to chromium browsers, since Firefox decided a while back that exposing USB devices directly to the internet was too much of a security concern. Ran into that issue with my keyboard.
Firefox supports WebSerial now: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2026/05/web-serial-support-in-firefox/
Firefox already has a website permission system, weird they don’t just let users choose if they think the risk is worth it or not.
Absolutely but at least they’re doing something for us Linux gamers.
Or, if it’s what I’m thinking of, you are not using Chrome but Firefox, and Firefox cannot use the “JavaScript USB” thing.
it’s what you’re thinking of. It doesn’t work with Firefox. Only chromium browsers.
Even better is a single downloadable HTML file. Downloadable programs will likely degrade over time, web APIs are highly stable and portable.
I still wish there was a “pledge” API to allow websites to disable functionality they don’t need. For example, this could be a perfect self-contained app that never needs any outside connections.
Asus did this. Hate it, and glad I didn’t buy one. It locks you into their online service. What happens when they decide to stop supporting a controller?
You could already run the firmware updater with Proton/Wine though? At least I didn’t have an issue with that, but its obviously not helpful to everyone considering the many flavours of linux. Nice that they recognize and are at least trying to address the issue though
I got it working on Wine eventually but I do recall having to hunt down instructions for the terminal so it would properly read my USB port. It was definitely confusing, and I’m glad I won’t have to remember all the steps again.
Yep that’s the downside, I know fuckall about Linux relatively speaking, so I was lucky CachyOS just ran it and my wired controller got recognized.
Their firmware updater is so trash that it doesn’t work on Windows. I never got it to recognize my controller. Hopefully this one is better.
The updater works, I’ve updated a 8bitdo gamepad I had.
So we can now download software from our browsers, and we no longer need to use specialized downloader app? I must be really out of touch.
They probably have the hardware run in USB-Serial mode (rather than the usual USB-HID mode of controller, keyboards and mice which has no capability to upload any significant data - beyond LED status - to the device) and then just push the firmware into the Serial Device their hardware appears at in that mode.
Chrome supports letting websites remotely access Serial devices on the host PC.
Yes but only in Chromium-based browsers as only those support the direct USB connection to the device.
Where’s the difference? A program still has to fetch drivers and software from somewhere.
Fuckin finally, the Android app is garbage.
The windows applet works just fine through Proton.
