Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#131

Post by mnk47 » Sat, Aug 16, 2025, 1:47 AM UTC

gaws wrote: post #103

vladdoster wrote: post #14

Flutter is a super compelling framework ( https://flutter.dev/multi-platform/desktop ), but I’d live in fear of it randomly being sent to the Google graveyard.

> I’d live in fear of it randomly being sent to the Google graveyard. Knowing Google, this happening is almost a guarantee. You should consider moving to another framework with a longer shelf life.

Go is still going strong after 15 years. Dart, the language of Flutter, is 13 years old.

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#132

Post by IntensiCode » Sat, Aug 16, 2025, 1:47 PM UTC

just stumbled across your post. i built two desktop apps a few weeks ago. well, vibe coded them. and i didnt think about it much. i used claude code and ask what lang/framework i should pick. "we" ended up with c/gtk. and this worked nicely for my cases. a pomodoro timer with ticking systray icon and screen darkening. and a vim-harpoon-style fzf window switcher with command mode.

but now i'm reading through all the comments here and am eager to try all these options. let's see how claude is doing with these.. :]

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#133

Post by dabockster » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 6:11 AM UTC

AI agents are making it really easy to develop in C/C++ and produce rock-solid memory safe code. Really looking forward to a new renaissance for desktop programming!

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#134

Post by dabockster » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 6:11 AM UTC

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #55

Still plain old Swift (or when the itch strikes, Objective-C) and AppKit. I don’t really build for platforms other than macOS because I haven’t found toolkits that feel right elsewhere. I would do just about anything for multiplatform AppKit.

I've built stuff in Qt before and it's great, but it's super expensive if you want to use it for proprietary work.

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#135

Post by dabockster » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 6:15 AM UTC

ranger_danger wrote: post #104

rramadass wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> using Qt without having to pay any license fee... Would you mind elaborating which Qt editions, linking etc. you use?

We have been using the LGPL opensource version since the 4.x days including the latest 6.x, both static and dynamic linking.

That's good to know. I'll have to look up those licenses another time.

Re: Ask HN: What toolchains are people using for desktop app development in 2025?

#136

Post by mvsingh » Mon, Aug 18, 2025, 2:31 AM UTC

Hey you can try NextBunny.co - It’s a Visual UI builder that exports real Next.js code.That means if you’re building a Nextjs desktop app you can design your UI visually in our builder, export clean code, and drop it right into your project. You own the code no hidden runtimes, no lock in. And It's free to use.