4 ms·
To quote the great pjmlp: Let me guess, Podman desktop is an Electron app.
by intelVISA 3y ago
To quote the great pjmlp: Let me guess, Podman desktop is an Electron app.
- leetharris 3y agoYes. It is by far the easiest way to make a nice looking cross platform app. If you can't handle the extra RAM you are always welcome to use the CLI
- intelVISA 3y agoOnly thing I can't handle is how Red Hat, with its bllions, can't afford a few extra dollars for user-respecting, secure native GUIs.
- ragnese 3y agoI hate Electron apps, too, but I've not heard people complain about security before. What's the security problem with Electron apps? I understand that you're basically running a Node.js instance for each app, but why is that more insecure than running, say, a GTK app? Since GTK and Node.js are written in C and C++, respectively, my gut instinct would be to assume they're equally likely to have security bugs.
- wiseowise 3y agoQuick search https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=17824&product_id=44696&version_id=0&page=1&hasexp=0&opdos=0&opec=0&opov=0&opcsrf=0&opgpriv=0&opsqli=0&opxss=0&opdirt=0&opmemc=0&ophttprs=0&opbyp=0&opfileinc=0&opginf=0&cvssscoremin=0&cvssscoremax=0&year=0&month=0&cweid=0&order=1&trc=15&sha=d8dc7cad32c3a3f97ca3be583aef8b6ab5a03858 https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=...
- cjbprime 3y agoThe difference is that no-one would load remote-user-supplied C++ code at runtime and expect it not to result in vulnerability, but people remotely source JS, or allow remote-user-supplied HTML to interact with their JS, and the stakes are higher than they would be in a web browser, because Node (and therefore Electron) has APIs to e.g. read and write to your filesystem and browsers have sandboxes to block that. (Electron offers sandboxing too, but you're likely to actually want to use the OS features so it's not as simple as always disallowing the access.)
- stonogo 3y agoWhy does a linux-only tool need a cross-platform app?
- ccmcarey 3y agoIt's not linux only? Podman desktop runs on Windows (I'm using it right now) and Mac
- pjmlp 3y agohttps://www.qt.io/product/ui-design-tools https://www.qt.io/product/ui-design-tools Depends on how much one actually bothers to look around.
- wiseowise 3y agoBuying specialized tool, hiring C++ UI devs just to create your average HTML page and make a couple of snob tech-bros happy, great investment.
- pjmlp 3y agoWhen one goes free, it gets the quality they deserve. I guess anything goes helping Google to spread Chrome all over the place, it gives them a warm feeling.
- dustypotato 3y agoChromium is open source
- pjmlp 3y agoAnd?
- wiseowise 3y agoNot sure what you meant by your first sentence, but if I understand correctly - you’re just proving my point.
- bjconlan 3y agos/C++ UI/React/ The statement still holds. This one is just the status quo
- wiseowise 3y agoTooling for React is miles ahead of anything C++ UI related while being “free” and free.
- robertoandred 3y agoI wouldn't call Electron apps nice looking. They always stand out like a sore thumb, being slow and non-native.
- paulddraper 3y agoI know we don't like it, but it is objectively the most cost-efficient way to make a cross-platform desktop app. Nothing else even comes close, unfortunately. Maybe someday.
- pjmlp 3y agoSure if one only knows Web. The days of multi-stack-skill devs are gone.
- klabb3 3y agoYou mean developers who not only know 4-5 different language-runtime-GUI stacks well, but also casually maintains 4-5 different versions of the same app? I don’t think they’re “gone”, I think they spend their time in better ways.
- mping 3y agoTo put it in another way, business doesn't care what language it is written as long as you ship it fast and it passes QA. Electron gets the job done, and you can tap a huge pool of devs.
- pjmlp 3y agoUntil liability finally becomes a thing in computing like in other industries, then lets see how much everyone cares. It is slowly happening, lawsuits against failed consulting projects, returns in digital stores, fixes free of charges due to warranties and security regulations changes,....
- mike_hearn 3y agoObjectively by what measure? Bear in mind that there are alternatives: JavaFX and Compose for Desktop are the ones I know best. They can be used from high level and popular languages. JavaFX is particularly good for desktop apps and can be compiled down to purely native code that starts as fast as an app written in C++ (likewise for Compose but the experiments with that are newer). There are some downsides: fewer people know them than with HTML. There are a few tweaks like window styles on macOS it could use to be more modern. On the other hand, it's easy to learn and you benefit from a proper reactively bindable widget library, like table and tree views if you need those. For developer tools such widgets can be useful. There's a modern theme for JavaFX here: https://github.com/mkpaz/atlantafx https://github.com/mkpaz/atlantafx CfD uses Material Design of course, but you can customize it. Having written desktop apps of varying complexity in all these frameworks, I can't say Electron is clearly superior. It is in some cases (e.g. if I was wanting to write a video conferencing app then it makes sense to re-use Google's investment into Hangouts/Meet for that), but it's also worse in some cases. For instance the multi-process model constantly gets in the way, but you can't disable it as otherwise XSS turns into RCE.
- pjmlp 3y agoThanks for the reference. "lightweight and efficient" is definitely not what comes to mind when talking about Electron.