6 ms·

What other PC OSs are there that actually gets used? BSDs?

by CDSlice 7y ago

inferiorhuman 7y ago
What other PC OSs are there that actually gets used? BSDs? Yes. Or Linux on non-x86 platforms.
- CDSlice 7y ago
  Electron not supporting ARM or other non-x86 platforms is a big problem that I was not aware of. I wonder if that will change with Microsoft starting to make ARM laptops and Apple being rumored to switch to ARM sometime in the future.
  - sroussey 7y ago
    The announcement this whole discussion links to talks about the new ARM support, so I am confused as to what you are talking about.
  - nereye 7y ago
    From https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/support https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/support: Linux The prebuilt ia32 (i686) and x64 (amd64) binaries of Electron are built on Ubuntu 12.04, the armv7l binary is built against ARM v7 with hard-float ABI and NEON for Debian Wheezy.
    - inferiorhuman 7y ago
      Oh hey, they finally added vestigial Arm support looks at site for Linux. Running Electron apps on Windows for ARM devices is possible by using the ia32 binary. lol Portability is not Electron's strong suit despite all the marketing hype to the contrary.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
If you're bothering to include Linux in your list of Desktop platforms at all you may as well include the BSDs. Besides, Java works fine on BSDs. Why is it that when modern developers reinvent the wheel they so often manage to do it worse than the last time?
- hollerith 7y ago
  I doubt that the frameworks (e.g., JavaFX) for creating a GUI in Java work fine on the BSDs. Portable GUI code is harder than portable code without a GUI.
- CDSlice 7y ago
  > If you're bothering to include Linux in your list of Desktop platforms at all you may as well include the BSDs. I guess, but the amount of people I know that use BSDs are even fewer than the amount that use Linux. Given that Linux is a hard enough sell to support for most apps I doubt that BSD support would be offered even if the framework supports it. > Besides, Java works fine on BSDs. Why is it that when modern developers reinvent the wheel they so often manage to do it worse than the last time? Speak for yourself, I would MUCH rather use an Electron app than a Java app. No need to make sure you have a proper JVM installed AND the apps don't look hideous like 99% of the Java apps I've ever used do.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
    You can quite easily bundle the Java runtime with your application. Many Java applications do this. As a bonus, it will still be smaller than the equivalent Electron application.
    - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
      Except Java applets are a thing of the past while seamless browser/browser-based software is a convenient thing of the present (and probably future[0]) and prioritizing size more than availability and usability is fighting the last war harder than a stranded Imperial Japanese soldier. 0: http://wasm.continuation-labs.com/d3demo/ http://wasm.continuation-labs.com/d3demo/

What other PC OSs are there that actually gets used? BSDs?

inferiorhuman 7y ago

What other PC OSs are there that actually gets used? BSDs? Yes. Or Linux on non-x86 platforms.

CDSlice 7y ago
Electron not supporting ARM or other non-x86 platforms is a big problem that I was not aware of. I wonder if that will change with Microsoft starting to make ARM laptops and Apple being rumored to switch to ARM sometime in the future.
- sroussey 7y ago
  The announcement this whole discussion links to talks about the new ARM support, so I am confused as to what you are talking about.
- nereye 7y ago
  From https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/support https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/support: Linux The prebuilt ia32 (i686) and x64 (amd64) binaries of Electron are built on Ubuntu 12.04, the armv7l binary is built against ARM v7 with hard-float ABI and NEON for Debian Wheezy.
  - inferiorhuman 7y ago
    Oh hey, they finally added vestigial Arm support looks at site for Linux. Running Electron apps on Windows for ARM devices is possible by using the ia32 binary. lol Portability is not Electron's strong suit despite all the marketing hype to the contrary.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

If you're bothering to include Linux in your list of Desktop platforms at all you may as well include the BSDs. Besides, Java works fine on BSDs. Why is it that when modern developers reinvent the wheel they so often manage to do it worse than the last time?

hollerith 7y ago
I doubt that the frameworks (e.g., JavaFX) for creating a GUI in Java work fine on the BSDs. Portable GUI code is harder than portable code without a GUI.
CDSlice 7y ago
> If you're bothering to include Linux in your list of Desktop platforms at all you may as well include the BSDs. I guess, but the amount of people I know that use BSDs are even fewer than the amount that use Linux. Given that Linux is a hard enough sell to support for most apps I doubt that BSD support would be offered even if the framework supports it. > Besides, Java works fine on BSDs. Why is it that when modern developers reinvent the wheel they so often manage to do it worse than the last time? Speak for yourself, I would MUCH rather use an Electron app than a Java app. No need to make sure you have a proper JVM installed AND the apps don't look hideous like 99% of the Java apps I've ever used do.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  You can quite easily bundle the Java runtime with your application. Many Java applications do this. As a bonus, it will still be smaller than the equivalent Electron application.
  - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
    Except Java applets are a thing of the past while seamless browser/browser-based software is a convenient thing of the present (and probably future[0]) and prioritizing size more than availability and usability is fighting the last war harder than a stranded Imperial Japanese soldier. 0: http://wasm.continuation-labs.com/d3demo/ http://wasm.continuation-labs.com/d3demo/