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This is Hacker News so you will get lots of people chiming in to remind you they won’t use your project because it’s Electron. The people like me usually don’t

This is Hacker News so you will get lots of people chiming in to remind you they won’t use your project because it’s Electron. The people like me usually don’t say anything but I know how disheartening it can be to only receive negativity so I’m going to chime in. I’m currently running Slack and Discord and am happy with both desktop applications. I would absolute consider using any future electron based applications in the future.

CaptainHiggins 8y ago
I think VS Code is the gold standard for Electron. Slack, not so much. On my work laptop, it uses 800mb over 5 processes, and is easily 5x slower to paste a screenshot into than Teams.
- thejohnconway 8y ago
  I wish VS Code wasn’t Electron. It’s noticeably laggier that native editors, and its performance under load is a lot worse.
  - pknopf 8y ago
    The question is, could any of the native editors keep the pace of new features/improvements?
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      Sure, why not? It's not like most of the features are strongly tied to VS Code being a browser app. Implemented against a different platform they'd probably look different. Maybe a bit less shiny, but likely a bit more performant.
      - pknopf 8y ago
        > Sure, why not? I was being facetious. I'm not a fan of electron either, but when it comes to just HTML/CSS/JS, nothing beats it in developer productivity. The business logic is (of course) a sep discussion. By the way, I have professional experience in HTML/JS/CSS/WPF/WinForms/Qt/Android/UIKit.
  - jjeaff 8y ago
    I can detect no lag in my vscode. I do have a very powerful desktop.
ausjke 8y ago
same here,for most cross platform desktop gui I too consider electron is the best choice,though may not be the perfect one.
stephenr 8y ago
Would you prefer no one said anything, and the OP wasn't aware that their technical choices will affect whether potential customers use their app? This isn't like "I don't like .Net so I'm not going to use any web app or service that runs on the Microsoft stack". The technology choices they make affect how it runs on each individual user's computer, and that will affect some people's decision to use (or not) the app.
- maaaats 8y ago
  Most people care about the features, there's a really small amount of people for which the tech stack matters. Negligible, I'd guess. So no, you're not doing anyone any favours here, just spreading negativity.
  - Crinus 8y ago
    Most people do not care about how something was made, but they do care if their computer feels sluggish, their hard disk fills up and - if they are using laptops - their battery drains fast.
- Veen 8y ago
  It's not that you're wrong to point out the shortcomings of Electron, but it's boring and it leads to endlessly repetetive threads that derail what could have been interesting conversations. Perhaps it's better to assume that people who are working with Electron understand its limitations and have made an informed decision to use it because it suits their requirements.
  - Crinus 8y ago
    I might be a pessimist, but i believe it is way more likely that people who are working with Electron are doing it on powerful workstations, mostly worked with the web stack and want to reuse their knowledge and many of them have no idea (or forgot) about the performance differences between an Electron application and a native application on a mid-range (let alone low end) computer. With that in mind, even if nothing will change for those who already have invested their time in Electron, this repetition might at least steer some who are at the edge towards better solutions than Electron.
stevoski 8y ago
10 or 15 years ago, people releasing desktop apps built on Java endured the same negativity. Meanwhile customers happily used the apps without caring about what tech was used because the apps solved problems for them. Likewise these days with Electron. If you app solves a real problem, people will use it regardless of the tech you use.
- bluedino 8y ago
  What Java apps became popular, other than Minecraft? The only things that got used were tools from companies like Cisco and IBM which everyone detested using. People still complain about Java.
  - SomeHacker44 8y ago
    How about JetBrains’s entire suite of IDEs? They are Java (well, now probably mostly Kotlin, but still JVM) based and cross-platform and as a user of those and previously Vi/Emacs for three decades I can say totally belong in my toolkit.
    - bluedino 8y ago
      Totally forgot about that one. Eclipse scarred me for life on Java-based IDE's
    - etatoby 8y ago
      I begrudgingly use IDEA because for some languages I cannot get nearly the same level of productivity with better tools, such as Vim or Sublime. But that doesn't mean I like using the damned thing. As soon as I can ditch it, I will and I do. Same goes for all the Electron rubbish. Every time I have to wait a few seconds after clicking on something trivial, like the File top-level menu, I remind myself of how much my Intel i7 can do in 1 second, and my disdain for Java and Electron apps only increases. I don't know if Windows or Mac OS have a battery usage chart by app, like Android does, with warnings for badly written software. If they don't, they should add it. Maybe that would clue more people in.

CaptainHiggins 8y ago

I think VS Code is the gold standard for Electron. Slack, not so much. On my work laptop, it uses 800mb over 5 processes, and is easily 5x slower to paste a screenshot into than Teams.

thejohnconway 8y ago
I wish VS Code wasn’t Electron. It’s noticeably laggier that native editors, and its performance under load is a lot worse.
- pknopf 8y ago
  The question is, could any of the native editors keep the pace of new features/improvements?
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Sure, why not? It's not like most of the features are strongly tied to VS Code being a browser app. Implemented against a different platform they'd probably look different. Maybe a bit less shiny, but likely a bit more performant.
    - pknopf 8y ago
      > Sure, why not? I was being facetious. I'm not a fan of electron either, but when it comes to just HTML/CSS/JS, nothing beats it in developer productivity. The business logic is (of course) a sep discussion. By the way, I have professional experience in HTML/JS/CSS/WPF/WinForms/Qt/Android/UIKit.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  I can detect no lag in my vscode. I do have a very powerful desktop.

ausjke 8y ago

same here,for most cross platform desktop gui I too consider electron is the best choice,though may not be the perfect one.

stephenr 8y ago

Would you prefer no one said anything, and the OP wasn't aware that their technical choices will affect whether potential customers use their app? This isn't like "I don't like .Net so I'm not going to use any web app or service that runs on the Microsoft stack". The technology choices they make affect how it runs on each individual user's computer, and that will affect some people's decision to use (or not) the app.

maaaats 8y ago
Most people care about the features, there's a really small amount of people for which the tech stack matters. Negligible, I'd guess. So no, you're not doing anyone any favours here, just spreading negativity.
- Crinus 8y ago
  Most people do not care about how something was made, but they do care if their computer feels sluggish, their hard disk fills up and - if they are using laptops - their battery drains fast.
Veen 8y ago
It's not that you're wrong to point out the shortcomings of Electron, but it's boring and it leads to endlessly repetetive threads that derail what could have been interesting conversations. Perhaps it's better to assume that people who are working with Electron understand its limitations and have made an informed decision to use it because it suits their requirements.
- Crinus 8y ago
  I might be a pessimist, but i believe it is way more likely that people who are working with Electron are doing it on powerful workstations, mostly worked with the web stack and want to reuse their knowledge and many of them have no idea (or forgot) about the performance differences between an Electron application and a native application on a mid-range (let alone low end) computer. With that in mind, even if nothing will change for those who already have invested their time in Electron, this repetition might at least steer some who are at the edge towards better solutions than Electron.

stevoski 8y ago

10 or 15 years ago, people releasing desktop apps built on Java endured the same negativity. Meanwhile customers happily used the apps without caring about what tech was used because the apps solved problems for them. Likewise these days with Electron. If you app solves a real problem, people will use it regardless of the tech you use.

bluedino 8y ago
What Java apps became popular, other than Minecraft? The only things that got used were tools from companies like Cisco and IBM which everyone detested using. People still complain about Java.
- SomeHacker44 8y ago
  How about JetBrains’s entire suite of IDEs? They are Java (well, now probably mostly Kotlin, but still JVM) based and cross-platform and as a user of those and previously Vi/Emacs for three decades I can say totally belong in my toolkit.
  - bluedino 8y ago
    Totally forgot about that one. Eclipse scarred me for life on Java-based IDE's
  - etatoby 8y ago
    I begrudgingly use IDEA because for some languages I cannot get nearly the same level of productivity with better tools, such as Vim or Sublime. But that doesn't mean I like using the damned thing. As soon as I can ditch it, I will and I do. Same goes for all the Electron rubbish. Every time I have to wait a few seconds after clicking on something trivial, like the File top-level menu, I remind myself of how much my Intel i7 can do in 1 second, and my disdain for Java and Electron apps only increases. I don't know if Windows or Mac OS have a battery usage chart by app, like Android does, with warnings for badly written software. If they don't, they should add it. Maybe that would clue more people in.