Cowpin has had a native Mac app for a while. Today it's on Windows and Linux too, as a beta: your whole library in its own window, without a browser tab to lose.
Download
- Windows 10 / 11: Cowpin-Setup.exe (4 MB). If it isn't already on your PC, the installer also sets up Microsoft's WebView2, the web engine the app uses.
- Linux (x86_64): AppImage for most distributions (make it executable, then run it), or a .deb for Ubuntu and Debian.
Why "beta"
- The Windows installer isn't signed yet, so Windows may say "unknown publisher". Choose More info → Run anyway. Signing is on the way.
- Quick-save shortcut and tray icon (the Mac's ⌥⌘B) are coming to Windows and Linux next.
It keeps itself up to date
Both apps update themselves. When you open Cowpin it checks for a new version, downloads it, verifies our digital signature on it, installs it and restarts. There's nothing to click, and on Windows no administrator prompt. While the app stays open it checks twice a day and asks before restarting. It refuses any update that isn't signed by us.
Before a new version is offered to anyone, the release process installs the previous version on a clean Windows or Linux machine and confirms it updates itself correctly. It also offers it a deliberately tampered update and confirms it refuses. (The AppImage updates itself; the .deb is updated by reinstalling it.)
Small and native, not Electron
Like the Mac app, these are small native programs that use your system's own web engine: WebView2 on Windows, WebKitGTK on Linux. That's why the Windows installer is about 4 MB instead of the 100 MB+ typical of Electron apps.
Tested on a clean machine, every release
Before a Windows or Linux build reaches the download links, it's installed on a fresh machine that has never seen Cowpin: a new Windows Server or Ubuntu 22.04 computer in the cloud. The app is opened and screenshotted, and the screenshot has to show the real Cowpin sign-in page. Only then is the build published. After that, it's downloaded again through the links on cowpin.com to confirm the site serves exactly the file that passed.
That test already earned its keep: on its first run it caught an installer that quietly gave up on PCs without WebView2. It was fixed before anyone downloaded it.
Price
The apps are free to download. Cowpin is $22/year (or $51/year with AI), with a 14-day free trial and no card needed to start. One subscription covers the web app, the browser extensions and every desktop app.