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Pretty much any electron app you download is probably tied to a backend and will fail if their servers go offline. It is kinda sad. Electron apps are usable as

Pretty much any electron app you download is probably tied to a backend and will fail if their servers go offline. It is kinda sad. Electron apps are usable as long as the company is really iterating forever. Is the real problem that we're overemphasizing UI and React and UI frameworks so much that we're now just really focused on building really pretty apps that have little or no long term usefulness? At this point it feels like full Companies are just Apps and those companies make something that fills exactly one need, like renting a broom from your neighbor. And it's really pretty and they had the best lawyers in the world thinking about all the potential legal nightmares of neighbors renting brooms that it really is a great app, should you ever need to rent your neighbor's broom. Or you can walk over to your neighbor and borrow it.

dreamcompiler 6y ago
Wait, what?? Electron apps contain a local web server. (That's part of the reason they're such resource hogs.) In principle at least they work offline. Github's desktop app, for example, works fine on a disconnected machine. You obviously cannot push or pull, but you can do local git operations with the GUI.
- svnpenn 6y ago
  Electron apps contain an entire headless browser. How anyone ever thought this was a good idea blows my mind.
  - dreamcompiler 6y ago
    I actually think it would be a great idea iff they would use a webview, which every OS provides nowadays. Apparently I'm not the first person who's thought of this. https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighter-alternatives-to-electron-for-hosting-a-blazor-desktop-app/ https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte...
    - svnpenn 6y ago
      Great article. I am not keen on relying on Edge for Windows, but that solution is a hell of a lot better than Electron.
    - userbinator 6y ago
      That strategy of "web applications on the desktop" was actually pioneered over 20 years ago by Microsoft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application Even in the Windows world, they were never all that popular.
      - dreamcompiler 6y ago
        HTAs were not cross-platform; Electron is. Furthermore HTML5 and JS are much more capable now than they were prior to Windows Vista. That's why Electron is popular and HTA wasn't. But Electron is still the worst possible example of the resource inefficiency of static linking.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    From size considerations, Electron apps can be more precisely described as a browser containing exactly one web app that it always runs.
- wtracy 6y ago
  I think GP was complaining about "most apps that are built with Electron", not Electron itself. The complaint supplies equally well to most mobile apps today.

dreamcompiler 6y ago

Wait, what?? Electron apps contain a local web server. (That's part of the reason they're such resource hogs.) In principle at least they work offline. Github's desktop app, for example, works fine on a disconnected machine. You obviously cannot push or pull, but you can do local git operations with the GUI.

svnpenn 6y ago
Electron apps contain an entire headless browser. How anyone ever thought this was a good idea blows my mind.
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  I actually think it would be a great idea iff they would use a webview, which every OS provides nowadays. Apparently I'm not the first person who's thought of this. https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighter-alternatives-to-electron-for-hosting-a-blazor-desktop-app/ https://blog.stevensanderson.com/2019/11/01/exploring-lighte...
  - svnpenn 6y ago
    Great article. I am not keen on relying on Edge for Windows, but that solution is a hell of a lot better than Electron.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    That strategy of "web applications on the desktop" was actually pioneered over 20 years ago by Microsoft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_Application Even in the Windows world, they were never all that popular.
    - dreamcompiler 6y ago
      HTAs were not cross-platform; Electron is. Furthermore HTML5 and JS are much more capable now than they were prior to Windows Vista. That's why Electron is popular and HTA wasn't. But Electron is still the worst possible example of the resource inefficiency of static linking.
- userbinator 6y ago
  From size considerations, Electron apps can be more precisely described as a browser containing exactly one web app that it always runs.
wtracy 6y ago
I think GP was complaining about "most apps that are built with Electron", not Electron itself. The complaint supplies equally well to most mobile apps today.