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>I know there's a lot of hate in here for Electron, but it truly makes cross-platform desktop app development achievable for small companies and indies. So doe

>I know there's a lot of hate in here for Electron, but it truly makes cross-platform desktop app development achievable for small companies and indies. So does Qt

duped 5y ago
Qt is not nearly as easy to use as Electron, especially if you're a small company and need to hire front end devs for cheap. Also Qt GUIs look like garbage, but it's hard to quantify why.
- Nicksil 5y ago
  >Qt is not nearly as easy to use as Electron, especially if you're a small company and need to hire front end devs for cheap. Sure it is. >Also Qt GUIs look like garbage, but it's hard to quantify why. No more garbage-like than you're getting with Electron and just as style-able (with arguable superior layout engines). Qt has a number of style palettes; perhaps you're used to using applications which chose to use non-native/standard palettes.
  - stnmtn 5y ago
    What are some examples of great-looking QT applications?
    - antiframe 5y ago
      Kdenlive, Okular, KeePassXC, Dolphin.
    - vmchale 5y ago
      J has an IDE written in Qt. It's nice.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    I've written apps with GTK, Qt and Electron in the past. Of the three frameworks, Qt is easily the hardest (albeit "the best" for cross-platform native development). I'm not sure what your experience is with it, but I never once felt like it was easier than writing an Electron app.
- GnarfGnarf 5y ago
  Qt has provided us with a solid multi-platform solution. If you want power and control, you always have to pay in complexity and learning curve.
allanrbo 5y ago
And wxWidgets :-)
foldr 5y ago
You do have to pay for Qt if your app isn't open source.
- detaro 5y ago
  No you don't. You can use LGPL just fine in commercial, non-open desktop apps.
rathboma 5y ago
As a dev with a lot of experience in JS/HTML/CSS Electron makes things super easy, especially when it can be part of the regular build pipeline. Learning Qt means figuring out a whole new stack and build chain. Maybe the result would be better, but with only a few hours a week I didn't feel like it would have been worth the time investment. See for example: https://nklayman.github.io/vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder/guide/ https://nklayman.github.io/vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder/g...
- DiggyJohnson 5y ago
  > regular I think the reason you consider the web app publishing pipeline the “regular” pipeline is the reason we’re having this discussion =p

>I know there's a lot of hate in here for Electron, but it truly makes cross-platform desktop app development achievable for small companies and indies. So does Qt

duped 5y ago

Qt is not nearly as easy to use as Electron, especially if you're a small company and need to hire front end devs for cheap. Also Qt GUIs look like garbage, but it's hard to quantify why.

Nicksil 5y ago
>Qt is not nearly as easy to use as Electron, especially if you're a small company and need to hire front end devs for cheap. Sure it is. >Also Qt GUIs look like garbage, but it's hard to quantify why. No more garbage-like than you're getting with Electron and just as style-able (with arguable superior layout engines). Qt has a number of style palettes; perhaps you're used to using applications which chose to use non-native/standard palettes.
- stnmtn 5y ago
  What are some examples of great-looking QT applications?
  - antiframe 5y ago
    Kdenlive, Okular, KeePassXC, Dolphin.
  - vmchale 5y ago
    J has an IDE written in Qt. It's nice.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  I've written apps with GTK, Qt and Electron in the past. Of the three frameworks, Qt is easily the hardest (albeit "the best" for cross-platform native development). I'm not sure what your experience is with it, but I never once felt like it was easier than writing an Electron app.
GnarfGnarf 5y ago
Qt has provided us with a solid multi-platform solution. If you want power and control, you always have to pay in complexity and learning curve.

allanrbo 5y ago

And wxWidgets :-)

foldr 5y ago

You do have to pay for Qt if your app isn't open source.

detaro 5y ago
No you don't. You can use LGPL just fine in commercial, non-open desktop apps.

rathboma 5y ago

As a dev with a lot of experience in JS/HTML/CSS Electron makes things super easy, especially when it can be part of the regular build pipeline. Learning Qt means figuring out a whole new stack and build chain. Maybe the result would be better, but with only a few hours a week I didn't feel like it would have been worth the time investment. See for example: https://nklayman.github.io/vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder/guide/ https://nklayman.github.io/vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder/g...

DiggyJohnson 5y ago
> regular I think the reason you consider the web app publishing pipeline the “regular” pipeline is the reason we’re having this discussion =p