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Is there any electron gpl based Word and Excel alternative? I always imagined running on top of electron helped you skip a lot of work and helped the app not lo

Is there any electron gpl based Word and Excel alternative? I always imagined running on top of electron helped you skip a lot of work and helped the app not look like shit/LibreOffice

anoncake 6y ago
You know what helps skip a lot of work? Not needlessly rewriting things.
ubercow13 6y ago
Libreoffice looks like a native desktop app. How do electron apps look better than that?
- HeckFeck 6y ago
  Plus, it is possible to customise the icons and colour scheme. There's light mode, dark mode, blue mode, even pink...
- bzzzt 6y ago
  Depends on which desktop. On macOS it stands out like a sore thumb. Icons are almost monochrome and indistinguishable. Also, it does not feel as smooth as a native Mac app since it uses its own toolkit instead of Mac native scrolling etc.
kuschku 6y ago
If you want to see how moving from Java to Electron destroys an application, while making it look "better", try out GeoGebra Classic 6 and GeoGebra Classic 5. The difference is stunning. Geogebra 5, written in Java, is just so much more performant, and feels so much more like an application, not a broken website. The same actually applies to pgAdmin 3 vs pgAdmin 4.
- vetinari 6y ago
  pgAdmin 4 is not an electron app. It is a real web app, written in Python and Flask, and Qt browser engine bundled together.
  - kuschku 6y ago
    Qt's browser engine is the Chromium Embedded Framework, Electron is the Chromium Embedded Framework. Sure, the backend is different, but in a thread about UI issues, it's the same.
    - vetinari 6y ago
      The UI issues in pgadmin4 are caused exactly because it opens web pages from relatively slow local web server, synchronously. Electron/CEF can be used to make a decently (i.e. usable) performing SQL client app (see Azure Data Studio). But not in a way that pgadmin4 did it.
npteljes 6y ago
There is, actually. ONLYOFFICE offers their AGPL word processor, spreadsheet etc programs as Electron apps too. The UI is absolutely modern, and one of their other selling point is their DOCX/XLSX compatibility. https://www.onlyoffice.com/desktop.aspx https://www.onlyoffice.com/desktop.aspx
- andrewshadura 6y ago
  > selling point is their DOCX/XLSX compatibility. Which they fail to deliver, given that LibreOffice manages to be more compatible with docx than they are.

Is there any electron gpl based Word and Excel alternative? I always imagined running on top of electron helped you skip a lot of work and helped the app not look like shit/LibreOffice

anoncake 6y ago

You know what helps skip a lot of work? Not needlessly rewriting things.

ubercow13 6y ago

Libreoffice looks like a native desktop app. How do electron apps look better than that?

HeckFeck 6y ago
Plus, it is possible to customise the icons and colour scheme. There's light mode, dark mode, blue mode, even pink...
bzzzt 6y ago
Depends on which desktop. On macOS it stands out like a sore thumb. Icons are almost monochrome and indistinguishable. Also, it does not feel as smooth as a native Mac app since it uses its own toolkit instead of Mac native scrolling etc.

kuschku 6y ago

If you want to see how moving from Java to Electron destroys an application, while making it look "better", try out GeoGebra Classic 6 and GeoGebra Classic 5. The difference is stunning. Geogebra 5, written in Java, is just so much more performant, and feels so much more like an application, not a broken website. The same actually applies to pgAdmin 3 vs pgAdmin 4.

vetinari 6y ago
pgAdmin 4 is not an electron app. It is a real web app, written in Python and Flask, and Qt browser engine bundled together.
- kuschku 6y ago
  Qt's browser engine is the Chromium Embedded Framework, Electron is the Chromium Embedded Framework. Sure, the backend is different, but in a thread about UI issues, it's the same.
  - vetinari 6y ago
    The UI issues in pgadmin4 are caused exactly because it opens web pages from relatively slow local web server, synchronously. Electron/CEF can be used to make a decently (i.e. usable) performing SQL client app (see Azure Data Studio). But not in a way that pgadmin4 did it.

npteljes 6y ago

There is, actually. ONLYOFFICE offers their AGPL word processor, spreadsheet etc programs as Electron apps too. The UI is absolutely modern, and one of their other selling point is their DOCX/XLSX compatibility. https://www.onlyoffice.com/desktop.aspx https://www.onlyoffice.com/desktop.aspx

andrewshadura 6y ago
> selling point is their DOCX/XLSX compatibility. Which they fail to deliver, given that LibreOffice manages to be more compatible with docx than they are.