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I'm not a desktop or a ui engineer by trade so I don't understand the contention with Electron. I know slack uses it and _seems_ to work fine but I have heard s

I'm not a desktop or a ui engineer by trade so I don't understand the contention with Electron. I know slack uses it and _seems_ to work fine but I have heard similar phrasing around "sorry for suggesting electron" and I'm curious to learn more about the cons of electron.

flatiron 5y ago
Pros: you run your web app as a local app without reprogramming your app. Cons: you are literally running a web app in a browser and not a native app.
marcodiego 5y ago
Simple: you're running an entire web browser and all its requirements like network support, image decoding and other support features to interpret a javascript program for the task of playing an mp3 that should be way lighter than running a browser.
- Phrodo_00 5y ago
  Also, there's a lot of overhead compared to running a new tab in a browser. It's basically an entire browser for a single tab.
theandrewbailey 5y ago
Many Electron apps are sluggish and use more resources than necessary for the problem they're trying to solve. For example, IRC was doing most of the things Slack (desktop client in Electron) does, but 20+ years ago when computers were a thousandth (or less) as powerful. IRC clients were snappy to load and interact with, didn't use a gigabyte of RAM, and didn't eat a CPU core. From https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/ https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/: > Your desktop todo app is probably written in Electron and thus has a userland driver for the Xbox 360 controller in it, can render 3D graphics and play audio and take photos with your web camera.
- anthk 5y ago
  Also, before Slack there was Jabber and MSN/AIM, and with Kopete you could do the same you can do today in slack but by using 1/10 of resources.
dec0dedab0de 5y ago
The reason a lot of people groan when we hear Electron is that it requires modern-ish hardware to do the same exact things that worked fine on hardware from 25 years ago. The reason a bunch of people use it anyway is because they have to be cross platform, and target the web.
- denysvitali 5y ago
  And because UI toolkits are generally not that good. Especially the cross platform ones
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    That accusation is quite the stone to be throwing around in the glasshouse that is the web technology stack. A portable version of Win32 would be infinitely better and more accessible than anything the web can come up with.
happyweasel 5y ago
Multiple executables ALL running their own version of the chrome browser - absolutely no resource/code sharing ? Teams, Slack, VsCode, Adobe products, Vscode, Signal, The normal chrome browser, Microsoft edge browser Providing a better user experience than "normal" desktop apps ? Really?

flatiron 5y ago

Pros: you run your web app as a local app without reprogramming your app. Cons: you are literally running a web app in a browser and not a native app.

marcodiego 5y ago

Simple: you're running an entire web browser and all its requirements like network support, image decoding and other support features to interpret a javascript program for the task of playing an mp3 that should be way lighter than running a browser.

Phrodo_00 5y ago
Also, there's a lot of overhead compared to running a new tab in a browser. It's basically an entire browser for a single tab.

theandrewbailey 5y ago

Many Electron apps are sluggish and use more resources than necessary for the problem they're trying to solve. For example, IRC was doing most of the things Slack (desktop client in Electron) does, but 20+ years ago when computers were a thousandth (or less) as powerful. IRC clients were snappy to load and interact with, didn't use a gigabyte of RAM, and didn't eat a CPU core. From https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/ https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/: > Your desktop todo app is probably written in Electron and thus has a userland driver for the Xbox 360 controller in it, can render 3D graphics and play audio and take photos with your web camera.

anthk 5y ago
Also, before Slack there was Jabber and MSN/AIM, and with Kopete you could do the same you can do today in slack but by using 1/10 of resources.

dec0dedab0de 5y ago

The reason a lot of people groan when we hear Electron is that it requires modern-ish hardware to do the same exact things that worked fine on hardware from 25 years ago. The reason a bunch of people use it anyway is because they have to be cross platform, and target the web.

denysvitali 5y ago
And because UI toolkits are generally not that good. Especially the cross platform ones
- selfhoster11 5y ago
  That accusation is quite the stone to be throwing around in the glasshouse that is the web technology stack. A portable version of Win32 would be infinitely better and more accessible than anything the web can come up with.

happyweasel 5y ago

Multiple executables ALL running their own version of the chrome browser - absolutely no resource/code sharing ? Teams, Slack, VsCode, Adobe products, Vscode, Signal, The normal chrome browser, Microsoft edge browser Providing a better user experience than "normal" desktop apps ? Really?