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No, Windows Start does not use React
- mintplant 7mo ago> This is the Windows 11 start menu. See that Recommended section at the bottom of it? That is built with React Native for Windows. No, that is not a full JavaScript framework in your start menu. There’s no web view / browser running gobbling up your resources. It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3. I would still say that means Windows Start uses React, frankly.
- daviddever23box 7mo agoReact Native, absolutely - as with Office 365, using WinUI 3 as the underlying UI layer.
- madeofpalk 7mo agoRunning a full javascript framework in a javascript runtime.
- kristianp 7mo agoWhen did office start using React Native? Office has been around well before the creation of javascript, let alone react.
- p_ing 7mo agoI'm not sure that it uses React Native, but modern add-ins for Office are JS, so any injected modern add-in will be using JS rather than COM/C/C++. This gave add-ins portability between all supported Office platforms, increased security, and made administration much easier.
- protocolture 7mo ago>Windows Start does not use React Ok >This is the part of the Windows Start that uses React. Ok
- p1necone 7mo agoSure, slightly inaccurate title, but the point they're making is valid, this comment isn't really a substantive critique. I could be wrong but I feel like when most HN commenters say that something "uses React" and also imply that that's a bad thing, what they really mean is "it loads a full web rendering engine and consumes ~200mb of unnecessary ram". Neither of those things are true here.
- madeofpalk 7mo ago> That is built with React Native for Windows. No, that is not a full JavaScript framework in your start menu. This is incorrect. It is a full JavaScript framework in your start menu. I don't see your read that it's about ram-hungry web views either. To me, "Start menu uses React" is a dig that Microsoft is so uncommitted to it's native development platform that they (partially) don't use it in one of the most 'core' parts of the operating system.
- p_ing 7mo agoShouldn't devs be allowed to select what they feel is the "best" choice for a given component? While I wouldn't expect to see a SwiftUI in Windows from Microsoft, Microsoft hasn't been adverse to various NIH web frameworks for quite some time now. If it fits and meets the goals of the project, why not?
- madeofpalk 7mo agoIf Microsoft developers' "best" choice for a tiny UI component like this is not it's flagship native UI framework, then that's a problem for Microsoft. That is the criticism.
- meindnoch 7mo ago>It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3. >So that’s it. Windows Start has a very small section (that can be disabled) that’s written in a framework that follows React principles and compiles down to native code. False. React Native doesn't "compile down to native code". It runs actual JavaScript, just not inside a browser, but a standalone JS runtime.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- __jonas 7mo agoI wonder what engine they are using with ReactNative on Windows. Is it Hermes like with regular RN projects targeting iOS/Android? Or do they run on some system installation of a more traditional engine like V8/JavaScriptCore?
- contextfree 7mo agohttps://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows/discussions/10411 https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows/discussion... https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows/pull/15371 https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows/pull/15371 https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Amicrosoft%2Freact-native-windows+chakra&type=pullrequests https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Amicrosoft%2Freact-native-... It looks like they were originally on Chakra (the JS engine used by IE9+ and pre-Chromium Edge) but added support for Hermes in 2021 or so and removed support for Chakra last year, so Hermes is now the only option. Edge moved to Chromium in 2019, so this means they actually kept Chakra around for a few years just? for React Native on Windows.
- SSLy 7mo agoOn slow enough Azure VDI host you could briefly see no-css language string when the start menu was still preparing for actual usage
- franktankbank 7mo ago
- djsavvy 7mo agoTalk about a misleading title XD
- UqWBcuFx6NV4r 7mo agoFatal error by the author: They’re right, it doesn’t use React in the way that everyone actually means and criticises. It still technically uses React though, so—as is already evident—you still get the worst of the worst, bad-faith arguers saying “WELL ACKSHULLY…”
- devmor 7mo agoI don’t think it’s any more bad faith than the author’s title.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- nu11ptr 7mo agoThat is actually still React. React is React Core + ReactDOM (web) renderer. React Native is the React Core + native renderer. They are both still React, and they both use Javascript, which while fast when JIT'd, is typically much slower than native code. I'm not commenting on whether this is a good or bad thing, but the article strikes me as a bit misleading.
- pathartl 7mo agoAdded some footnotes to add clarification
- nightski 7mo agoIt may not involve a webview, but from what I can tell it definitely still is running JavaScript. Either way it doesn't matter. As someone who has used Windows in a significant way since the 90s, the taskbar and start menu are a buggy mess. The new design is awful, I just want a list of my programs like before.
- aufhebung 7mo agoThe recommended section using React Native is honestly more strange and confusing than if they had just used React for the whole thing. It doesn't seem like a particularly complex UI element, it would be easier to just develop it using the already used native APIs.
- taspeotis 7mo agoTitle is pretty bad. It should be “Yes Windows Start Uses React but Not the Way You or I Do As Web Developers.”
- pathartl 7mo agoAdded a footnote. I still chock it up to bad naming. React as most people know it could really be considered React for Web.
- RS-232 7mo agoIt’s garbage either way. On that note, do we have an open standard for OS implementations? Where the fuck is our modern scratch made OS written in Rust? It’s about time we topple this shitty triopoly.
- uwais12 7mo agoThe amount of misinformation that spreads from a single tweet or blog post is insane. Someone says "Windows uses React" and suddenly it's gospel. The actual XAML Islands explanation makes way more sense from a performance standpoint. Microsoft has been using XAML for their UI framework for years, why would they switch to React for something as performance-critical as the Start menu?
- dvt 7mo agoThe weirdest thing about this (which is frankly bizarre) is Microsoft emphatically shilling React Native for MacOS[1] usage (???). Like, wtf? Why? Not only is it embarassing for MS to be using another competing company's (Facebook's) UI layer when they're, you know, an operating system company. But they're also pushing it for competing operating systems. What idiotic PM signed off on this? How in the world does Microsoft benefit out of promulgating Facebook's technology? [1] https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-macos/docs/intro https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-macos/docs/intro
- layer8 7mo agoMicrosoft decided to move to be a cloud services company instead of an operating system company. The operating system is merely a convenient means to acquiring new service subscriptions.
- dvt 7mo agoI mean, you could say the same thing about Apple, but they're extremely protective of their ecosystem and native capabilities.
- layer8 7mo agoApple is a hardware company and likes to have control over the whole user experience. Microsoft doesn’t care about the experience as long as they can sell subscriptions, and doesn’t care much about hardware either.
- chabska 7mo agoWindows has like 5 UI kits concurrently built into it. It very well be that one UI kit PM is promoting react native to attack another UI kit team.
- devnotes77 7mo ago[dead]
- hparadiz 7mo agoI get to see this right when I just upgraded VSCode. https://x.com/0xAkuKun/status/2036235161956917593 https://x.com/0xAkuKun/status/2036235161956917593 VSCode had an instant search for 10 years. Now it's broken suddenly for the first time ever. Can't search anything. Back to greping like a cave man. sigh
- nickvec 7mo agonit: the embedded screenshot of the Windows 11 Start Menu is low res enough that seeing/reading the Recommended section is challenging without squinting!
- pathartl 7mo agoAgreed. Swapped it out. Still not great proportions, but at least it's not blurry.
- opengrass 7mo agoA battle tank doesn't have diesel because it's disabled.
- ipanemax 7mo agoThe internet tends to flatten everything into “it's React”. React Native for Windows is quite different from embedding a web React app in the OS shell. It’s essentially a renderer that maps React components to native WinUI controls. So saying “Windows Start is written in React” is a bit like saying an iOS app built with SwiftUI is “written in HTML”.
- sceptic123 7mo agoNo it's not, it's like saying it's written in SwiftUI
- Incipient 7mo agoI understand there is a position of "we've always done it this way, so we keep doing it this way" And. "we need to move with the times and use new tech!". But surely there is some happy middle ground that doesn't end up with a entire js runtime in the damn start menu? I'm a fairly casual dev compared to faang folk, but surely even they realised this was an awful choice?
- rsynnott 7mo ago> No, Windows Start did not use React [except for the bit that does]
- abhishekayu 6mo ago[dead]