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I'm fairly certain electron could easily be modified to be installed once and used as the launcher for its applications. I'm also fairly certain we'll see this

I'm fairly certain electron could easily be modified to be installed once and used as the launcher for its applications. I'm also fairly certain we'll see this in the future. Therefore all claims that electron bloats 200Mb are just temporary. Its still a relatively young technology with huge potential (which also means huge potential for misuse!) I spent 5+ years writing native GUI apps in half a dozen frameworks, I hope to never do so again unless the project's requirements ask for it, which I don't see happening for most use-cases out there. Besides, almost nobody writes true native applications anymore - its all C# now which is ironic as its also extremely bloated with huge pools of average developers at best.

Mithaldu 10y ago
Even if the app is smaller on drive, it still takes ~200mb in ram for even the smallest apps.
- jeremiep 10y ago
  Dropbox itself takes 200Mb and its a simple python app. Google drive takes 300Mb. VSCode takes about 100Mb of ram with a project opened right now. Even my Emacs takes 250Mb and I literally live inside it. All of them have at least 2Gb of virtual memory being mapped to them. Yet I still have 9Gb of free ram. If you want to go against bloat, you might just as well uninstall every single software from your computer, including its OS.
  - roryisok 10y ago
    Literally? I demand a photo of you inside emacs
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    Each of those apps does a lot more than the most common use for electron: "online messengers" Also, you're arguing in typical FYGM fashion. Not a good look.
    - jeremiep 10y ago
      I was merely comparing an Electron app (VSCode, not at all an "online messenger") to average apps running on the desktop because your original comment implied "200Mb for the smallest apps" which isn't true.
      - Mithaldu 10y ago
        You could've said that clearly instead of making people guess what you're talking about. No idea why VSCode is being sparing for you, but i've seen plenty of electron-based online messengers use that much just by running.
  - majewsky 10y ago
    Meanwhile my webserver that serves 8 websites (some static sites, some sophisticated web apps) sites at 80 MB used RAM. For everything. You can't make this up.
    - jeremiep 10y ago
      Your web server also doesn't run X11 or any window managers nor any gui apps.
      - majewsky 10y ago
        That's true, but I don't see anything in that list that needs to use multiple hundreds of MB of RAM. To witness, we had GUI apps in 1995. They look a bit nicer these days, but not multiple-100-MB nicer. :)
        jeremiep 10y ago
        Emacs is far older than 1995 and still eating 250Mb :)
        majewsky 10y ago
        And there was a time when "Emacs" expanded to "eight megabytes and constantly swapping". :)
  - mixedCase 10y ago
    >VSCode takes about 100Mb of ram with a project opened right now. I call bullshit on that one.
    - roryisok 10y ago
      I currently have VS Code running with 7 files open, and it's using 83Mb. Like a browser, I imagine the RAM goes up with each tab, so it all depends on how many files you have open.
      - mixedCase 10y ago
        Well I just closed all files, disabled all extensions, restarted it and it's consuming 508MB.
ivan_gammel 10y ago
>I'm fairly certain electron could easily be modified to be installed once and used as the launcher for its applications. That's fine, we can return to this topic when it will become a mature launcher app. The thing is that today it's not in that state yet. >Besides, almost nobody writes true native applications anymore True native applications are not just the applications written using some native API and platform-specific low level language. Native app is the app that comfortably exists within the operating system environment, follows the UI guidelines and integrates with native UX and performance enhancing functions of the OS. For example, some universal Windows app written on C# is native on Windows.
jules 10y ago
Didn't Chrome already used to have that feature where you could install an application and it would put an icon on your desktop and open it in a browser window without tab/url bar?

Mithaldu 10y ago

Even if the app is smaller on drive, it still takes ~200mb in ram for even the smallest apps.

jeremiep 10y ago
Dropbox itself takes 200Mb and its a simple python app. Google drive takes 300Mb. VSCode takes about 100Mb of ram with a project opened right now. Even my Emacs takes 250Mb and I literally live inside it. All of them have at least 2Gb of virtual memory being mapped to them. Yet I still have 9Gb of free ram. If you want to go against bloat, you might just as well uninstall every single software from your computer, including its OS.
- roryisok 10y ago
  Literally? I demand a photo of you inside emacs
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  Each of those apps does a lot more than the most common use for electron: "online messengers" Also, you're arguing in typical FYGM fashion. Not a good look.
  - jeremiep 10y ago
    I was merely comparing an Electron app (VSCode, not at all an "online messenger") to average apps running on the desktop because your original comment implied "200Mb for the smallest apps" which isn't true.
    - Mithaldu 10y ago
      You could've said that clearly instead of making people guess what you're talking about. No idea why VSCode is being sparing for you, but i've seen plenty of electron-based online messengers use that much just by running.
- majewsky 10y ago
  Meanwhile my webserver that serves 8 websites (some static sites, some sophisticated web apps) sites at 80 MB used RAM. For everything. You can't make this up.
  - jeremiep 10y ago
    Your web server also doesn't run X11 or any window managers nor any gui apps.
    - majewsky 10y ago
      That's true, but I don't see anything in that list that needs to use multiple hundreds of MB of RAM. To witness, we had GUI apps in 1995. They look a bit nicer these days, but not multiple-100-MB nicer. :)
      - jeremiep 10y ago
        Emacs is far older than 1995 and still eating 250Mb :)
        majewsky 10y ago
        And there was a time when "Emacs" expanded to "eight megabytes and constantly swapping". :)
- mixedCase 10y ago
  >VSCode takes about 100Mb of ram with a project opened right now. I call bullshit on that one.
  - roryisok 10y ago
    I currently have VS Code running with 7 files open, and it's using 83Mb. Like a browser, I imagine the RAM goes up with each tab, so it all depends on how many files you have open.
    - mixedCase 10y ago
      Well I just closed all files, disabled all extensions, restarted it and it's consuming 508MB.

ivan_gammel 10y ago

>I'm fairly certain electron could easily be modified to be installed once and used as the launcher for its applications. That's fine, we can return to this topic when it will become a mature launcher app. The thing is that today it's not in that state yet. >Besides, almost nobody writes true native applications anymore True native applications are not just the applications written using some native API and platform-specific low level language. Native app is the app that comfortably exists within the operating system environment, follows the UI guidelines and integrates with native UX and performance enhancing functions of the OS. For example, some universal Windows app written on C# is native on Windows.

jules 10y ago

Didn't Chrome already used to have that feature where you could install an application and it would put an icon on your desktop and open it in a browser window without tab/url bar?