3 ms·

I'm fully aware of what Electron is, you don't have to explain it. But for these teams I don't see how Electron is practically any different from any other cros

I'm fully aware of what Electron is, you don't have to explain it. But for these teams I don't see how Electron is practically any different from any other cross-platform framework like Java. It's the same purpose. The teams using it are going for a "write once run anywhere" approach. It's not a stopgap, they're never going to spend the money on building two or more applications if they don't have to. If you think that's not good for the user, you may want to try explaining to the users that having a native app is going to cost them several times as much. That's the situations I've been in, and the cheap and easy Javascript-based solution (Electron, React Native, Flutter, etc) usually seems to win.

betwixthewires 5y ago
That's only because web apps are the default. You build a system, the web app is supposed to be a demo of what your system can do. But since the days of Facebook, YouTube, reddit, the web app is the product itself. This is why these companies always break third party apps that connect to their API. So you're in one of a few situations. You have to build a web app because precedent, and you don't want cost overruns. Also use case comes second to business case. And we end up where we are. It's a mess for the user, and I don't think it's sustainable, which means this problem won't exist long term.
- BrightGlow 5y ago
  I think they break third party apps because it's a real pain to keep maintaining a bunch of incompatible old versions of an API forever. Also your last paragraph doesn't follow to me because the whole reason these apps exist is because they are web apps. They wouldn't exist otherwise. That's the whole reason they are sustainable now in the first place. They're the default because it's the cheapest and easiest way to deliver a product for billions of users.

3 ms·

I'm fully aware of what Electron is, you don't have to explain it. But for these teams I don't see how Electron is practically any different from any other cros

by BrightGlow 5y ago

betwixthewires 5y ago
That's only because web apps are the default. You build a system, the web app is supposed to be a demo of what your system can do. But since the days of Facebook, YouTube, reddit, the web app is the product itself. This is why these companies always break third party apps that connect to their API. So you're in one of a few situations. You have to build a web app because precedent, and you don't want cost overruns. Also use case comes second to business case. And we end up where we are. It's a mess for the user, and I don't think it's sustainable, which means this problem won't exist long term.
- BrightGlow 5y ago
  I think they break third party apps because it's a real pain to keep maintaining a bunch of incompatible old versions of an API forever. Also your last paragraph doesn't follow to me because the whole reason these apps exist is because they are web apps. They wouldn't exist otherwise. That's the whole reason they are sustainable now in the first place. They're the default because it's the cheapest and easiest way to deliver a product for billions of users.