4 ms·

I feel like I'm crazy based on how much I loathe electron apps. Don't get me wrong it's a great concept, I like the idea of portability everywhere, but I can't

I feel like I'm crazy based on how much I loathe electron apps. Don't get me wrong it's a great concept, I like the idea of portability everywhere, but I can't get past the fact it's basically just a stripped-down Chrome browser with the "app" effectively being plain-ole HTML/CSS/JS. It just seems pointless when you can run the exact software in the web browser you likely already have running, with less overhead to boot. The music streaming service Tidal really highlighted some of these issues for me, and started my hate-train. Their desktop application is electron-based, which supports HiFi, as does Chrome. The crazy thing is Chrome is the only browser that supports HiFi, and has been this way since the service launched in 2014, despite countless requests from FF users to add support. If Tidal is going to spend 6 years ignoring everything but Chrome for the sake of their electron app, IMO other companies are going to follow suit and continue the march towards Internet Explorer 2.0

buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
> It just seems pointless when you can run the exact software in the web browser This isn’t necessarily true though. Electron gives you file system access (among other things). Most electron apps I’ve used at least do something that a browser cannot do. Though definitely not all. Also, being able to alt/cmd + tab to they application you want is often convenient.
djsumdog 6y ago
I totally understand. Electron is cancer. I don't want a "native app" to come in a 80~150MB executable, bundled with, not only all its dependencies, but a full fucking chrome engine. Electron is cancer. I hate it and I'm not backing down off that.
- rsa25519 6y ago
  Is 150 MB much nowadays? What would you have otherwise done with that disk space?
throw_m239339 6y ago
It's not so much the tech but yes, having to ship an entire browser for each app... This isn't sustainable, as many cheap devices today are sold with only 64/128 GB SSD... One alternative is PWA but no interaction with the OS since sandboxed and of course, different platforms == different browsers which more or less support for PWA, so not fit for a Git desktop client for instance.

buzzerbetrayed 6y ago

> It just seems pointless when you can run the exact software in the web browser This isn’t necessarily true though. Electron gives you file system access (among other things). Most electron apps I’ve used at least do something that a browser cannot do. Though definitely not all. Also, being able to alt/cmd + tab to they application you want is often convenient.

djsumdog 6y ago

I totally understand. Electron is cancer. I don't want a "native app" to come in a 80~150MB executable, bundled with, not only all its dependencies, but a full fucking chrome engine. Electron is cancer. I hate it and I'm not backing down off that.

rsa25519 6y ago
Is 150 MB much nowadays? What would you have otherwise done with that disk space?

throw_m239339 6y ago

It's not so much the tech but yes, having to ship an entire browser for each app... This isn't sustainable, as many cheap devices today are sold with only 64/128 GB SSD... One alternative is PWA but no interaction with the OS since sandboxed and of course, different platforms == different browsers which more or less support for PWA, so not fit for a Git desktop client for instance.