5 ms·

Wow. You realize they share most of the same code, and are essentially feature identical? Seriously, open the desktop app, then open the web app. They're ide

Wow. You realize they share most of the same code, and are essentially feature identical? Seriously, open the desktop app, then open the web app. They're identical. Precisely because they chose to use a toolkit that let them easily handle cross platform issues with UI in a sane and repeatable manner.

s73ver_ 9y ago
See, for a website, that's fine. But not for an application. Why would I not want an application that fits in well with my chosen OS, and follows the design guidelines and patterns of that OS?
ake1 9y ago
if they are identical, why would i choose to open up a bundled web browser when the one i already have opened works just fine and can display the web page just as well?
wtetzner 9y ago
If that's the case, then the desktop app buys you absolutely nothing over just using the webapp. In fact, now you have to have multiple instances of your browser running, instead of just one.
kelnos 9y ago
> You realize they share most of the same code, and are essentially feature identical? Yes. So why would I run essentially a second web browser instance to run the same code in a different place? Beyond that, I had with weird screen refresh issues with the desktop app, where scrolling or even just typing in the text box would cause parts of the main HTML view to just disappear to the point where it'd be unusable. Often images wouldn't load, or would load, but then have the same disappearing issue. Restarting or refreshing the UI wouldn't help. I'd have to restart the app every couple days anyway due to ballooning memory usage. Hell, even the font rendering was weird and didn't match what I'd see by opening a regular Chrome window. I reported the issues to Slack, but never heard back, and after waiting through several releases for a fix, over a period of months, I gave up. > ... let them use a toolkit that let them easily handle cross platform issues with UI in a sane and repeatable manner. That's not what I want. I want apps that fit in with my desktop, not apps that look the same across OSes, ignoring platform idioms and style/placement standards.
- chocolatebunny 9y ago
  I wish Chrome apps for the desktop were more popular. Use the browser you're using anyways but on a thing that sort of acts like an application. I installed the Netflix chrome app on my Windows PC. It's basically the Netflix webpage on a separate application window that doesn't have tabs or a search bar.
  - tga 9y ago
    Chrome apps on desktops are dead. https://blog.chromium.org/2016/08/from-chrome-apps-to-web.html https://blog.chromium.org/2016/08/from-chrome-apps-to-web.ht...
tathougies 9y ago
Yes, that's the problem. Web apps are never going to have the level of system integration that you'd expect with a native desktop app. Why install a 'native app' that offers you the subpar web experience when you could just open it in your browser?
yetanother1980 9y ago
Except electron is a lot more resource heavy than one tab in a browser.
jpeloquin 9y ago
The Electron and browser Slack apps are not /exactly/ the same on Windows. The Electron version of Slack swaps out the normal titlebar for a black bar and a hamburger menu. The point of a native app is to integrate with the native window manager, but Slack overrides the native styling. (Spotify does the same thing.) The browser version, by virtue of running in the web browser, is consistent with the rest of the system UI.
pjmlp 9y ago
Exactly, it doesn't have any business being a fake desktop app, just because the devs don't want to learn native frameworks nor how to write portable web applications.
imtringued 9y ago
The difference is that electron is crap. A single Gitter tab uses 20MB RAM. I'm sure it would use at least 250MB for the same functionality if I used the electron version. This is such an obvious problem. Why haven't they fixed it already by trimming down the web browser?
cozzyd 9y ago
The desktop app was using 4GB of ram on my workstation (Centos 7), so I stopped using it.

s73ver_ 9y ago

See, for a website, that's fine. But not for an application. Why would I not want an application that fits in well with my chosen OS, and follows the design guidelines and patterns of that OS?

ake1 9y ago

if they are identical, why would i choose to open up a bundled web browser when the one i already have opened works just fine and can display the web page just as well?

wtetzner 9y ago

If that's the case, then the desktop app buys you absolutely nothing over just using the webapp. In fact, now you have to have multiple instances of your browser running, instead of just one.

kelnos 9y ago

> You realize they share most of the same code, and are essentially feature identical? Yes. So why would I run essentially a second web browser instance to run the same code in a different place? Beyond that, I had with weird screen refresh issues with the desktop app, where scrolling or even just typing in the text box would cause parts of the main HTML view to just disappear to the point where it'd be unusable. Often images wouldn't load, or would load, but then have the same disappearing issue. Restarting or refreshing the UI wouldn't help. I'd have to restart the app every couple days anyway due to ballooning memory usage. Hell, even the font rendering was weird and didn't match what I'd see by opening a regular Chrome window. I reported the issues to Slack, but never heard back, and after waiting through several releases for a fix, over a period of months, I gave up. > ... let them use a toolkit that let them easily handle cross platform issues with UI in a sane and repeatable manner. That's not what I want. I want apps that fit in with my desktop, not apps that look the same across OSes, ignoring platform idioms and style/placement standards.

chocolatebunny 9y ago
I wish Chrome apps for the desktop were more popular. Use the browser you're using anyways but on a thing that sort of acts like an application. I installed the Netflix chrome app on my Windows PC. It's basically the Netflix webpage on a separate application window that doesn't have tabs or a search bar.
- tga 9y ago
  Chrome apps on desktops are dead. https://blog.chromium.org/2016/08/from-chrome-apps-to-web.html https://blog.chromium.org/2016/08/from-chrome-apps-to-web.ht...

tathougies 9y ago

Yes, that's the problem. Web apps are never going to have the level of system integration that you'd expect with a native desktop app. Why install a 'native app' that offers you the subpar web experience when you could just open it in your browser?

yetanother1980 9y ago

Except electron is a lot more resource heavy than one tab in a browser.

jpeloquin 9y ago

The Electron and browser Slack apps are not /exactly/ the same on Windows. The Electron version of Slack swaps out the normal titlebar for a black bar and a hamburger menu. The point of a native app is to integrate with the native window manager, but Slack overrides the native styling. (Spotify does the same thing.) The browser version, by virtue of running in the web browser, is consistent with the rest of the system UI.

pjmlp 9y ago

Exactly, it doesn't have any business being a fake desktop app, just because the devs don't want to learn native frameworks nor how to write portable web applications.

imtringued 9y ago

The difference is that electron is crap. A single Gitter tab uses 20MB RAM. I'm sure it would use at least 250MB for the same functionality if I used the electron version. This is such an obvious problem. Why haven't they fixed it already by trimming down the web browser?

cozzyd 9y ago

The desktop app was using 4GB of ram on my workstation (Centos 7), so I stopped using it.