JetBrains have their tweaks to the JRE available: https://github.com/JetBrains/JetBrainsRuntime
The major problems begin when you want to leverage the GPU or multimedia components in which case you would want something else.
Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
21–30 of 47 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#22Most ideas that could be desktop apps would be just as good as web apps or browser extensions. For myself Ive been using libui-ng.github.io/libui-ng/ for a few projects lately
I disagree. They might be "better" from the point of view of the developer, but from the user's perspective, web apps are often much worse.
- Needlessly ties the app to the web / Internet connectivity in order to work (a disadvantage unless the application's purpose involves queries over the Internet).
- The application can change on you without warning and without you taking a deliberate step to update, including adding unwanted functionality and removing wanted functionality.
- You can be denied access to the application remotely (this is also true for native applications that require an account to work).
- Look and feel inconsistent with the rest of your applications / operating system.
- Performance tends to be worse for web apps.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#23I've used wxwidgets in the past, both from C and from Python. It's appeal is in its simplicity.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#24In general for a great experience on the desktop you want to use the native stack of each platform, so C# / Windows SDK in Windows, GTK in most Linux distros and whatever Mac officially recommends.
You could use electron and build cross platform apps using web technologies, but I'm yet to use an electron based app that doesn't feel like crap.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#25Most ideas that could be desktop apps would be just as good as web apps or browser extensions. For myself Ive been using libui-ng.github.io/libui-ng/ for a few projects lately
Web apps are good for documents and form based applications. Anything else and you'd be better learning a native SDK.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#26Personal projects, Racket with gui-easy. Close to frictionless GUI development, very nice language(-platform) to build with. Excellent metaprogramming.
Professionally, Java and JavaFX. Decent multi-platform story, there's a config flag for tuning everything, and there's a library for pretty much anything anyone has ever had an issue with and when they don't fit as well as you'd like you just tear it up with reflection and fix.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#27What are your requirements? Performance, development speed, native look and feel, ... Which languages are you familiar with? Do you have a preference with regards to the language?
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#28Electron. /thread Seriously, even John Carmack would probably use Electron because it provides the most value to customer per unit of effort input.
And the result is noticeable. Electron is becoming synonymous to shoddily built apps. Even though you can write buggier apps with native SDK, but the amount of works that been put into them elevates the final result. Not so much with Electron.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#29flutter. specially now that google fired half the team it's not worse than tauri/electron for desktop, and you get mobile for free if needed.
> flutter. specially now that google fired half the team Source?
There is no source since it's not true. The product manager of Flutter/Dart said on Twitter that there was no change in team size, only some DevOps roles moving to other (likely cheaper) locations.
Re: Ask HN: Best stack for building a desktop app?
#30Electron. /thread Seriously, even John Carmack would probably use Electron because it provides the most value to customer per unit of effort input.
And the result is noticeable. Electron is becoming synonymous to shoddily built apps. Even though you can write buggier apps with native SDK, but the amount of works that been put into them elevates the final result. Not so much with Electron.
> Electron is becoming synonymous to shoddily built apps
Isn't that just because Electron makes it so easy to build cross-platform apps? That's a reason to use it!