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Electron apps contain an entire headless browser. How anyone ever thought this was a good idea blows my mind.
by svnpenn 6y ago
Electron apps contain an entire headless browser. How anyone ever thought this was a good idea blows my mind.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoI 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 agoGreat 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 agoThat 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 agoHTAs 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 agoFrom size considerations, Electron apps can be more precisely described as a browser containing exactly one web app that it always runs.