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I mean, most OSes already ship with a WebView component that you can use instead of shipping an entire browser runtime. Wails does that: https://wails.io/ http

I mean, most OSes already ship with a WebView component that you can use instead of shipping an entire browser runtime. Wails does that: https://wails.io/ https://wails.io/ Tauri also does that: https://tauri.app/ https://tauri.app/ That does help with the app sizes quite a bit: https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-comparison https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-compariso... Sadly it doesn’t change the memory usage much so the technology is still inherently wasteful, but on a certain level it feels like a lost battle - because web technologies often feel like the choice of least resistance when you want GUI software that will run on a bunch of platforms while not being annoying to develop (from the perspective of your run of the mill dev).

Tmpod 2y ago
> That does help with the app sizes quite a bit: https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-comparison https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-compariso... Interesting resource, thanks! Was not expecting the start up values for Tauri, they're abysmal ._. Welp, at least the executables are small.
- kibwen 2y ago
  Tauri uses the native webview on the platform, which is presumably why startup values are all over the place. (It's also somewhat suspect to the point of warranting investigation; even using the native webview there seems no reason for something that takes half a second on Windows to take 25 seconds on Linux).
  - lukevp 2y ago
    I had this same observation. My guess is because Tauri uses WebGtk and Linux doesn’t really have a “native webview” so it’s kinda shipping the whole thing? The startup time seems like Tauri’s a non-starter for a lot of apps if you want them to be cross platform, had no idea this was a thing.
    - sirwhinesalot 2y ago
      These startup times do not make any sense. I've developed a little toy app using Tauri+React and it starts pretty much "instantly" in all platforms.
  - Per_Bothner 2y ago
    For me Tauri/Wry starts up pretty instantaneous. This is using Wry as the renderer for the DomTerm terminal emulator (https://domterm.org https://domterm.org), invoked with 'domterm -Bwry'. This is on Fedora Linux 41 x64. Admittedly using a rather old version of Wry (0.43.1) with webkitgtk 2.46.5 - I haven't had time to update.
icedrift 2y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the problem with tauri and wails that they are still dependent on the client's native OS webview? I know Tauri uses WRY which essentially takes in your request, finds the webview present in the client and calls a corresponding function. The differences between these webviews are vast and you end up with different UIs or cobbled together adjustments for each OS to split the differences. Fully embedding a browser is extremely storage inefficient but it does guarantee apps look identical regardless of platform.
- KronisLV 2y ago
  Depends on what you care more about: the package size or that sort of consistency in exactly how things look. For example, when I was using Wails to quickly throw together a UI for managing some other client software, small package sizes were great and since whatever I do inside of a WebView/browser will always be different than the native OS GUI solutions, slight differences were inconsequential. Someone else might have vastly different requirements.
  - codethief 2y ago
    > consistency in exactly how things look It's not just how things look, though, there are a ton of differences between browsers in terms of how things behave, too.
- rendaw 2y ago
  More different than the normal differences webdevs need to handle, safari vs chrome vs firefox vs edge?
  - sirwhinesalot 2y ago
    No, less, since it's really only two: - Blink for Windows/Qt hosts. - WebKit for macOS/GTK hosts. I remember when web developers actually gave a damn. Just call yourselves Chrome developers because that's what you are now.
- klabb3 2y ago
m00dy 2y ago
I recently build a torrent streaming app on tauri (lemontv.xyz), it is just amazing framework, it is damn fast on every platform. The only issue is that accesing system api's a bit problematic especially on android side...I needed to get into JNI calls to run a background thread on android so that when the user puts the app on foreground, the app needs to do a bit more of buffering. I mean in general, Tauri is or could be one of the best options if you are writing rust backend and have cross platform requirements.

Tmpod 2y ago

> That does help with the app sizes quite a bit: https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-comparison https://github.com/Elanis/web-to-desktop-framework-compariso... Interesting resource, thanks! Was not expecting the start up values for Tauri, they're abysmal ._. Welp, at least the executables are small.

kibwen 2y ago
Tauri uses the native webview on the platform, which is presumably why startup values are all over the place. (It's also somewhat suspect to the point of warranting investigation; even using the native webview there seems no reason for something that takes half a second on Windows to take 25 seconds on Linux).
- lukevp 2y ago
  I had this same observation. My guess is because Tauri uses WebGtk and Linux doesn’t really have a “native webview” so it’s kinda shipping the whole thing? The startup time seems like Tauri’s a non-starter for a lot of apps if you want them to be cross platform, had no idea this was a thing.
  - sirwhinesalot 2y ago
    These startup times do not make any sense. I've developed a little toy app using Tauri+React and it starts pretty much "instantly" in all platforms.
- Per_Bothner 2y ago
  For me Tauri/Wry starts up pretty instantaneous. This is using Wry as the renderer for the DomTerm terminal emulator (https://domterm.org https://domterm.org), invoked with 'domterm -Bwry'. This is on Fedora Linux 41 x64. Admittedly using a rather old version of Wry (0.43.1) with webkitgtk 2.46.5 - I haven't had time to update.

icedrift 2y ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the problem with tauri and wails that they are still dependent on the client's native OS webview? I know Tauri uses WRY which essentially takes in your request, finds the webview present in the client and calls a corresponding function. The differences between these webviews are vast and you end up with different UIs or cobbled together adjustments for each OS to split the differences. Fully embedding a browser is extremely storage inefficient but it does guarantee apps look identical regardless of platform.

KronisLV 2y ago
Depends on what you care more about: the package size or that sort of consistency in exactly how things look. For example, when I was using Wails to quickly throw together a UI for managing some other client software, small package sizes were great and since whatever I do inside of a WebView/browser will always be different than the native OS GUI solutions, slight differences were inconsequential. Someone else might have vastly different requirements.
- codethief 2y ago
  > consistency in exactly how things look It's not just how things look, though, there are a ton of differences between browsers in terms of how things behave, too.
rendaw 2y ago
More different than the normal differences webdevs need to handle, safari vs chrome vs firefox vs edge?
- sirwhinesalot 2y ago
  No, less, since it's really only two: - Blink for Windows/Qt hosts. - WebKit for macOS/GTK hosts. I remember when web developers actually gave a damn. Just call yourselves Chrome developers because that's what you are now.
klabb3 2y ago

m00dy 2y ago

I recently build a torrent streaming app on tauri (lemontv.xyz), it is just amazing framework, it is damn fast on every platform. The only issue is that accesing system api's a bit problematic especially on android side...I needed to get into JNI calls to run a background thread on android so that when the user puts the app on foreground, the app needs to do a bit more of buffering. I mean in general, Tauri is or could be one of the best options if you are writing rust backend and have cross platform requirements.