Developers cloned my student project in 2 weeks. Why?
Hi HN,
I’m a student developer, and I recently released a standalone browser built for multitasking called gLinksWWW. I didn’t do any major promotion, but something strange happened: 101 unique developers cloned the repo in just 14 days.
Even more surprising, my Supabase dashboard shows consistent daily traffic (80KB+ egress) from users I don't know, even while I'm asleep or away from my desk.
The Context:
I built this because I felt that modern browsers, while powerful, add too much cognitive load for specific, high-speed research tasks. I wanted a tool that behaves more like a "utility" than a "platform."
My Questions for HN:
As someone just starting out, I’m trying to understand this "organic traction."
The "Why": For those of you who build developer tools, what usually drives 100+ clones without active marketing? Is it just the "Showcase" algorithm, or is there a genuine hunger for minimalist browser alternatives?
The "Electron" Dilemma: I chose Electron for speed of development. If you saw a tool that solved a real problem but was built on Electron, would that be a dealbreaker for you in 2026?
The Architecture: I’m currently designing a "Multi-Cut" feature for power users. How can I implement complex UI logic in a browser shell without losing that "snappy" feel?
I’m not looking for stars—I’m looking for the "brutal honesty" HN is famous for. I want to understand if I’ve stumbled onto a real problem, or if this is just a statistical fluke.
I’ve put the project on GitHub (rio719/gLinksWWW-browser) if you want to see the code I’m talking about, but I’m more interested in your thoughts on the "why" behind the data.
Looking forward to learning from you all.
Complaining about Electron is an international sport. Don't take it too seriously though, all the other x-platform UI frameworks are much worse. The #1 option I think is still an ordinary web application which doesn't have any install BS, electron is #2 if you really need something a plain web app can't do.
Talk to the users and ask them.
No matter how long they have been working on something like this, you might just have something more advanced here.
Out of 101 interested developers, I can't image that all of them are also students.
A few may even be very experienced professionally, maybe even doing a good job working for a well-paying company.
I would take it as a compliment :)