Shep 1.0.0

Shep 1.0 is a rewrite. It keeps the name, the app id and the repository, and none of 0.10's code: the Ext JS interface, the old main process and the per-service recipes are gone. Every service now works the same way, from its address alone.

Coming from 0.10: your services do not come along

1.0 starts from a clean profile. It reads nothing 0.10 left, so after the update Shep opens with no services and no sign-ins. Add each service again with the + and sign in again.

0.10's data is not deleted. It stays in ~/.config/Shep/config.json and ~/.config/Shep/Partitions, and 1.0 keeps its own settings beside them in shep.json. Going back to the 0.10.0 AppImage brings your old setup back.

0.10 downloads updates on its own and installs them when it quits, and it has no setting to stop that. If you want to stay on 0.10 for now, keep a copy of the 0.10.0 AppImage somewhere else, because the update replaces the AppImage in place.

What is new

• Every service works the same way. There are no per-service scripts to go stale when a site changes. The icon is the page's favicon, the unread count is the (3) in the page title, and a title that says there is something new without a number draws a dot.
• A list to start from. The + offers 53 current services by name, with each site's own favicon, or takes any address you type. Picking one only fills in the name and the address.
• Links stay in the app. A link to another site opens in a Shep window that shares the service's session, so you are already signed in. When a sign-in finishes back on the service, the window closes by itself.
• Pages see a plain browser. The user agent is Chromium's own, with nothing of Shep or Electron in it, which is what sign-ins and captchas check. Todoist's Cloudflare check now passes.
• A title bar for the page in view: back, forward, reload, home to the address the service was added with, find in page, and the zoom when it is not 100%. The rail's right click has what acts on the service itself.
• Workspaces with icons, switched from the top of the rail, with a dot on the switcher when a hidden service has something new.
• Calls. Camera and microphone ask once per service, and a service marked for calls is never asked. Screen sharing goes through the desktop's own picker on Wayland.
• Preferences in five sections that apply at once, a lock screen with a password, Don't Disturb, a tray icon, closing to the background, start on login, spell checking in the languages you pick, and ten interface languages.
• An unread report in Preferences › Advanced, which shows what each service's title said, for when a count looks wrong.
• Electron 44 and a Svelte interface, with every service in its own sandboxed, isolated view.

Install

Download Shep-1.0.0-linux-x86_64.AppImage, make it executable and run it. There are also a .deb and a .tar.gz.

The AppImage needs FUSE 2, which several distributions no longer install by default. On Fedora that is fuse-libs; on Debian and Ubuntu, libfuse2. Without it, run the AppImage with --appimage-extract-and-run.

Known limits

Linux only. It is tested on Fedora with GNOME on Wayland. The interface translations were not reviewed by native speakers, and corrections are welcome.