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Serious question: what companies are still building (new) native Windows apps? Even as a web developer, I think it would be pretty cool to make/see more native

Serious question: what companies are still building (new) native Windows apps? Even as a web developer, I think it would be pretty cool to make/see more native desktop apps, but nearly all of the only ones I've used in years have been a) built-in, b) a browser, or c) a video game. So I'm genuinely wondering: who is this for?

Const-me 6y ago
Content authoring (3D, video, audio, etc), CAD, CAM, CAE, software for controlling custom peripheral devices are unlikely to move to web or even Electron.
- brundolf 6y ago
  I've used Blender, Substance, Unity, and Unreal. All of them have totally custom GUI systems except Substance, which uses QT (I think). Though I guess technically those would end up calling Windows APIs underneath, even if they don't use the actual Windows GUI. But I literally can't think of a single non-builtin Windows program that uses the actual native Windows GUI components, other than old shareware like VLC and Daemon Tools and WinDirStat Edit: I take it back, GIMP uses a pretty native GUI, though isn't that through GTK?
  - pjmlp 6y ago
    Gtk needs to call into Win32 to exist. Windows development, includes the whole OS stack, also when applications are play CLI and services.
    - brundolf 6y ago
      Yeah in hindsight I think I was conflating two distinct things: 1) Windows system APIs 2) the Windows GUI system #1 is what the OP was mainly talking about and I can see now that it's relevant to Electron, QT, video games, etc I am still curious about the state of #2 though
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        I replied on another comment regarding #2. In Europe that are plenty of jobs for native GUIs, and most OSes aren't Linux, the whole stack is used together, Qt won't work without GUI APIs, even if it happens to fake its own controls. Game APIs are also part of the GUI stack.
pjmlp 6y ago
Lots of companies in the life sciences laboratories, medical devices, factory automation, vending machines, anything air gaped. Then to add to your comment, video games are native desktop apps, unless you want to chuckle along the incognitic of how well does the customer browser accelerate WebGL. Finally, Windows laptops with detachable keyboards and pen, are wiping the floor of Android tablets, because the Android ecosystem cannot do anything better than phone apps with bigger screen.

Const-me 6y ago

Content authoring (3D, video, audio, etc), CAD, CAM, CAE, software for controlling custom peripheral devices are unlikely to move to web or even Electron.

brundolf 6y ago
I've used Blender, Substance, Unity, and Unreal. All of them have totally custom GUI systems except Substance, which uses QT (I think). Though I guess technically those would end up calling Windows APIs underneath, even if they don't use the actual Windows GUI. But I literally can't think of a single non-builtin Windows program that uses the actual native Windows GUI components, other than old shareware like VLC and Daemon Tools and WinDirStat Edit: I take it back, GIMP uses a pretty native GUI, though isn't that through GTK?
- pjmlp 6y ago
  Gtk needs to call into Win32 to exist. Windows development, includes the whole OS stack, also when applications are play CLI and services.
  - brundolf 6y ago
    Yeah in hindsight I think I was conflating two distinct things: 1) Windows system APIs 2) the Windows GUI system #1 is what the OP was mainly talking about and I can see now that it's relevant to Electron, QT, video games, etc I am still curious about the state of #2 though
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      I replied on another comment regarding #2. In Europe that are plenty of jobs for native GUIs, and most OSes aren't Linux, the whole stack is used together, Qt won't work without GUI APIs, even if it happens to fake its own controls. Game APIs are also part of the GUI stack.

pjmlp 6y ago

Lots of companies in the life sciences laboratories, medical devices, factory automation, vending machines, anything air gaped. Then to add to your comment, video games are native desktop apps, unless you want to chuckle along the incognitic of how well does the customer browser accelerate WebGL. Finally, Windows laptops with detachable keyboards and pen, are wiping the floor of Android tablets, because the Android ecosystem cannot do anything better than phone apps with bigger screen.