4 ms·

One of the best thing to happen on desktop? I can't think of anything good that has come out of electron. Seriously. Maybe slack (haven't used it) but that is

by tjoff 9y ago

One of the best thing to happen on desktop? I can't think of anything good that has come out of electron. Seriously. Maybe slack (haven't used it) but that is probably about the worst use case for electron imaginable and would be utterly trivial to implement in a proper language natively.

pcr0 9y ago
Apps that work just as well across Mac/Windows/Linux. Among terminal emulators for example, Hyper is the only one I can think of.
- tjoff 9y ago
  For multi-platform to be worth anything it has to be good for something. Why would I care that an app I don't want to use can be executed on several platforms?
  - thiht 9y ago
    You're not representative of the development world as a whole. You not wanting to use anything electron related is irelevant to its actual success. Don't forget HN is a bubble : Electron is very much appreciated outside of this particular community.
    - tjoff 9y ago
      And what particular javascript-centric bubble are you part of? Again, what electron-apps do people appreciate? There might be tons, I just haven't seen anything usable.
      - thiht 9y ago
        VSCode has been cited dozens of times on this thread only, and is probably one of the best Electron apps. I personally like Insomnia, Postman, Nylas, Discord, Git Kraken. Not seeing "anything usable" is pure bad faith.
        tjoff 9y ago
        VSCode is currently mentioned three times (including your comment) in the entire discussion here, of which one predates my comment. You said something about bad faith? But yes, VSCode is probably the exception. But they have had to spend a truly impressive effort to combat the shortfalls of electron and are to my knowledge the only ones that might have succeeded in making something relatively performant. If that is what is required to make electron decent then few arguments in favor of it remains.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
    - rimliu 9y ago
      [citation needed] I wonder how many outside HN bubble even know what electron is.
  - gldalmaso 9y ago
    I think quite a lot of Electron app users see value in being able to use the desktop app on their work pc and switch to a web version in their travel laptop. Also there is a lot of value in being able to just register on the web and start using the app until you find that you need a feature that is only available on the desktop, because of fewer restrictions, and only then switch, lowering the barrier to entry considerably.
    - tjoff 9y ago
      Electron apps are good because they are as bad as a web site? Yes I get that different sets of features on different platforms is an issue. But often that is half the point, if everything could be done on a website there is in the vast majority of cases no need for an electron "app".
    - s73v3r_ 9y ago
      Why wouldn't I just run the desktop app on my work laptop?
KeitIG 9y ago
> would be utterly trivial to implement in a proper language natively. Have you tried to develop a cross-platform app for Windows, macOS and Linux recently recently? I do not know what you mean by "trivial", but using HTML/CSS/JS is the fastest way to develop UIs, and so, apps/programs. No contest. (about performances or resources management, that's a whole other story). And using different techs for each platform to have a native app is not what I call trivial for developers in terms of complexity.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  It may be the fastest way to develop UIs, but it's the slowest and least efficient way to run code. This makes it useless for any non-trivial app that is CPU bound - including, games, audio, video, 3D, and many many more. Just because it's easy to build a house with Lego doesn't mean it's a good idea, or that it's going to compete with professional building materials.
  - deadbunny 9y ago
    So they should do what? 1. Use current dev team to develop only the web version? 2. Hire X teams to develop for X platforms? (there goes your linux support) 3. Hire 2nd team to work on a cross platform native desktop client? 4. Open APIs and leave it to the wolves? Everyone on here is acting like a few hundred meg of ram and barely 0.5% CPU usage is the end of the fucking world.
    - swebs 9y ago
      #4 please! The days of GAIM/Pidgin felt like the golden age of chat apps, at least as far as the user experience was concerned. Just one centralized app could manage all the disparate protocols without ads or millions of analytic scripts tracking every mouse movement. And it barely took up system resources. Also, you'd be surprised how fast 4gb gets used up by the time the OS, the browser, and various Electron apps take their cut. I can't browse the web while having Slack and Spotify open or things start thrashing. I think it's past the point of ridiculousness when a simple chat app takes more memory than a full featured IDE like IDEA.
philliphaydon 9y ago
VSCode
lmm 9y ago
Electron has really raised the bar for how easy it should be to package and publish a cross-platform native-enough app. If something like Slack is "utterly trivial to implement in a proper language natively", why was Skype so awful for so long, to the point that they've now switched to Electron?

by tjoff 9y ago

pcr0 9y ago

Apps that work just as well across Mac/Windows/Linux. Among terminal emulators for example, Hyper is the only one I can think of.

tjoff 9y ago
For multi-platform to be worth anything it has to be good for something. Why would I care that an app I don't want to use can be executed on several platforms?
- thiht 9y ago
  You're not representative of the development world as a whole. You not wanting to use anything electron related is irelevant to its actual success. Don't forget HN is a bubble : Electron is very much appreciated outside of this particular community.
  - tjoff 9y ago
    And what particular javascript-centric bubble are you part of? Again, what electron-apps do people appreciate? There might be tons, I just haven't seen anything usable.
    - thiht 9y ago
      VSCode has been cited dozens of times on this thread only, and is probably one of the best Electron apps. I personally like Insomnia, Postman, Nylas, Discord, Git Kraken. Not seeing "anything usable" is pure bad faith.
      - tjoff 9y ago
        VSCode is currently mentioned three times (including your comment) in the entire discussion here, of which one predates my comment. You said something about bad faith? But yes, VSCode is probably the exception. But they have had to spend a truly impressive effort to combat the shortfalls of electron and are to my knowledge the only ones that might have succeeded in making something relatively performant. If that is what is required to make electron decent then few arguments in favor of it remains.
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
  - rimliu 9y ago
    [citation needed] I wonder how many outside HN bubble even know what electron is.
- gldalmaso 9y ago
  I think quite a lot of Electron app users see value in being able to use the desktop app on their work pc and switch to a web version in their travel laptop. Also there is a lot of value in being able to just register on the web and start using the app until you find that you need a feature that is only available on the desktop, because of fewer restrictions, and only then switch, lowering the barrier to entry considerably.
  - tjoff 9y ago
    Electron apps are good because they are as bad as a web site? Yes I get that different sets of features on different platforms is an issue. But often that is half the point, if everything could be done on a website there is in the vast majority of cases no need for an electron "app".
  - s73v3r_ 9y ago
    Why wouldn't I just run the desktop app on my work laptop?

KeitIG 9y ago

> would be utterly trivial to implement in a proper language natively. Have you tried to develop a cross-platform app for Windows, macOS and Linux recently recently? I do not know what you mean by "trivial", but using HTML/CSS/JS is the fastest way to develop UIs, and so, apps/programs. No contest. (about performances or resources management, that's a whole other story). And using different techs for each platform to have a native app is not what I call trivial for developers in terms of complexity.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
It may be the fastest way to develop UIs, but it's the slowest and least efficient way to run code. This makes it useless for any non-trivial app that is CPU bound - including, games, audio, video, 3D, and many many more. Just because it's easy to build a house with Lego doesn't mean it's a good idea, or that it's going to compete with professional building materials.
- deadbunny 9y ago
  So they should do what? 1. Use current dev team to develop only the web version? 2. Hire X teams to develop for X platforms? (there goes your linux support) 3. Hire 2nd team to work on a cross platform native desktop client? 4. Open APIs and leave it to the wolves? Everyone on here is acting like a few hundred meg of ram and barely 0.5% CPU usage is the end of the fucking world.
  - swebs 9y ago
    #4 please! The days of GAIM/Pidgin felt like the golden age of chat apps, at least as far as the user experience was concerned. Just one centralized app could manage all the disparate protocols without ads or millions of analytic scripts tracking every mouse movement. And it barely took up system resources. Also, you'd be surprised how fast 4gb gets used up by the time the OS, the browser, and various Electron apps take their cut. I can't browse the web while having Slack and Spotify open or things start thrashing. I think it's past the point of ridiculousness when a simple chat app takes more memory than a full featured IDE like IDEA.

philliphaydon 9y ago

VSCode

lmm 9y ago

Electron has really raised the bar for how easy it should be to package and publish a cross-platform native-enough app. If something like Slack is "utterly trivial to implement in a proper language natively", why was Skype so awful for so long, to the point that they've now switched to Electron?