5 ms·

Wait, where is this explosion of new desktop applications? Also isn't it only a lower barrier if you already know html/css/js

jacquesc 10y ago
I'm currently using these Electron Apps every day: Slack, Nylas, VSCode, Insomonia, Freeter, Mongobooster On a 2015 macbook pro with 16GB of RAM. The buggiest and most resource intensive apps I use tend to be the native ones (iTunes, Dropbox, BusyCal, Evernote).
- x0x0 10y ago
  Slack on the desktop is a hunk of garbage. Sign in to even 3 slacks and it will eat almost a gig of ram and 5% CPU to... display v2014 irc chat. They really should be ashamed of themselves. I have to remember to kill it whenever I'm on battery.
  - pitaj 10y ago
    I have 4 slack chats open and it's using about 550 MB of RAM and 0% CPU in total.
    - bitexploder 10y ago
      When I launch Slack in a cgroup with 512 MB of RAM it crashed, OOM, before loading. 1 team. It takes about 1024 to make it stable and prevent swap thrashing.
    - pikzen 10y ago
      Five hundred and fifty megabytes of memory. To display a chat. Or four.
  - Tijdreiziger 10y ago
    I've been quite happy with Rambox, an app that aims to unify all your messaging services into one desktop app. Ironically, it's also built with Electron, but right now, it's sitting at 30MB RAM and 0,1% CPU with 3 Slacks, WhatsApp, (FB) Messenger and Discord loaded. http://rambox.pro/ http://rambox.pro/
    - mos_basik 10y ago
      I can hardly imagine this working well, but I'm driven to install it and give it a try. Thanks for the link; maybe it will be magical!
    - mercer 10y ago
      Have you ever used Franz? If so, is Rambox better, in your opinion? Franz doesn't seem to be much better in RAM than a browser, but I can't imagine what Rambox does to improve that.
      - Tijdreiziger 10y ago
        I haven't used Franz, because it's not open-source. I actually found Rambox after hearing about Franz and searching for an open-source alternative. Both Rambox and (as I understand it) Franz just load the web interfaces of the services you configure, so performance wouldn't be better than Chromium, since that's what Electron uses. The added value is in the wrapper, which helps to keep everything organized, lets you open and close all services at once (by opening/closing Rambox), and provides a global 'do not disturb' mode for notifications.
- kitsunesoba 10y ago
  iTunes is a mess. It's an ancient code base (dates back to SoundJam MP in the late 90s) and is a bizarre amalgamation of cross-platform pseudo-Cocoa, Cocoa, and webviews. It's a great example of how to not do a native app. Also, I haven't used Evernote in years but last I checked, their app isn't true native but instead some kind of web wrapper trying to look native.
pier25 10y ago
Wunderlist, Slack, Spotify, Adobe CC, Atom, VSCode, and a very long etc. (Technically Spotify and Adobe CC use CEF instead of electron but it's the same idea)
- leadingthenet 10y ago
  Wunderlist is native, afaik.
  - pier25 10y ago
    Um you are right. It used to be HTML5 and in 2012 they switched to native. My bad. https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/18/wunderlist-2-goes-native-on-all-platforms-to-overcome-limitations-of-html5-and-deliver-better-experiences/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/18/wunderlist-2-goes-native-o...
gschier 10y ago
There's a page for that! https://electron.atom.io/apps/ https://electron.atom.io/apps/
- Avshalom 10y ago
  Is 300 programs in three years an explosion? Does it even rise above rounding error in existing rate new of desktop apps? Because thats what all talk about lowering barriers and democratizing the desktop implies: that Significantly More desktop apps are being written because of Electron.

jacquesc 10y ago

I'm currently using these Electron Apps every day: Slack, Nylas, VSCode, Insomonia, Freeter, Mongobooster On a 2015 macbook pro with 16GB of RAM. The buggiest and most resource intensive apps I use tend to be the native ones (iTunes, Dropbox, BusyCal, Evernote).

x0x0 10y ago
Slack on the desktop is a hunk of garbage. Sign in to even 3 slacks and it will eat almost a gig of ram and 5% CPU to... display v2014 irc chat. They really should be ashamed of themselves. I have to remember to kill it whenever I'm on battery.
- pitaj 10y ago
  I have 4 slack chats open and it's using about 550 MB of RAM and 0% CPU in total.
  - bitexploder 10y ago
    When I launch Slack in a cgroup with 512 MB of RAM it crashed, OOM, before loading. 1 team. It takes about 1024 to make it stable and prevent swap thrashing.
  - pikzen 10y ago
    Five hundred and fifty megabytes of memory. To display a chat. Or four.
- Tijdreiziger 10y ago
  I've been quite happy with Rambox, an app that aims to unify all your messaging services into one desktop app. Ironically, it's also built with Electron, but right now, it's sitting at 30MB RAM and 0,1% CPU with 3 Slacks, WhatsApp, (FB) Messenger and Discord loaded. http://rambox.pro/ http://rambox.pro/
  - mos_basik 10y ago
    I can hardly imagine this working well, but I'm driven to install it and give it a try. Thanks for the link; maybe it will be magical!
  - mercer 10y ago
    Have you ever used Franz? If so, is Rambox better, in your opinion? Franz doesn't seem to be much better in RAM than a browser, but I can't imagine what Rambox does to improve that.
    - Tijdreiziger 10y ago
      I haven't used Franz, because it's not open-source. I actually found Rambox after hearing about Franz and searching for an open-source alternative. Both Rambox and (as I understand it) Franz just load the web interfaces of the services you configure, so performance wouldn't be better than Chromium, since that's what Electron uses. The added value is in the wrapper, which helps to keep everything organized, lets you open and close all services at once (by opening/closing Rambox), and provides a global 'do not disturb' mode for notifications.
kitsunesoba 10y ago
iTunes is a mess. It's an ancient code base (dates back to SoundJam MP in the late 90s) and is a bizarre amalgamation of cross-platform pseudo-Cocoa, Cocoa, and webviews. It's a great example of how to not do a native app. Also, I haven't used Evernote in years but last I checked, their app isn't true native but instead some kind of web wrapper trying to look native.

pier25 10y ago

Wunderlist, Slack, Spotify, Adobe CC, Atom, VSCode, and a very long etc. (Technically Spotify and Adobe CC use CEF instead of electron but it's the same idea)

leadingthenet 10y ago
Wunderlist is native, afaik.
- pier25 10y ago
  Um you are right. It used to be HTML5 and in 2012 they switched to native. My bad. https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/18/wunderlist-2-goes-native-on-all-platforms-to-overcome-limitations-of-html5-and-deliver-better-experiences/ https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/18/wunderlist-2-goes-native-o...

gschier 10y ago

There's a page for that! https://electron.atom.io/apps/ https://electron.atom.io/apps/

Avshalom 10y ago
Is 300 programs in three years an explosion? Does it even rise above rounding error in existing rate new of desktop apps? Because thats what all talk about lowering barriers and democratizing the desktop implies: that Significantly More desktop apps are being written because of Electron.